I found a secret!

[Samusbot]

The shadow in [J.F. 09] can be found, with great difficulty. It does not leave footprints and moves very quickly.

also... Has anyone noticed the writing on on of the hidden stuctures?

[McFrugal]

What does it look like, just a shadow on the ground with no marker? Can you click on it?

[Samusbot]

The Shadow is a fourth person. (He's actually been trapped longer than the other three people.

[McFrugal]

You didn't answer either of my questions. Are you trying to be clever and talking about the player, by referring to the mouse cursor as the shadow?

If it is really possible to find a fourth clickable marker roaming around I am curious as to what state the machine has to be in to allow that. I roamed all over the place while the scanner was active and found only the three humans.

[Samusbot]

Yes, he's just like the others (except for the lack of footprints). I don't know whether certain settings beyond the ones needed to see the other people are needed, as I found him entirely by chance. From what I remember, he moves quite a bit faster than the rest and the closest he gets to the other people is much farther than the closest the others get to each other.

[McFrugal]

Well I still can't find a fourth person, and there isn't actually that much space for one to hide. It might require some specific machine settings or time of day or calendar date or something.

[Spaysinvader]

I ran across it too, by complete chance. It called itself "Baak." I've searched since completeing the game, but no luck.

[McFrugal]

Did you find it before getting the button that allowed you to see the others?

[LvK]

Any special settings to find the 4th character ? I can't find it ><

[Sylverone]

Yes, you can spot the fourth character before becoming able to see the others, I ran across it by accident quite early on. As I recall, I was zoomed in completely at the time. When it wandered out of the visible area, I zoomed out to try and follow it more easily, but it was gone.So I zoomed back in all the way and moved in the direction it left. I got lucky and found it again, clicked on it and got the storyline. Then it wandered out of area again and I wasn't able to find it.

So my theory is: The fourth character wanders the world constantly during the whole game, but is only visible at the closest zoom level, and leaves no trail. At closest zoom you aren't able to pan as quickly, plus the world is "larger", relatively speaking. This would explain why it has only been found by a few prople. Given that I found it early in my game (before I had learned to do some of the puzzles), I get the impression that it is meant to be a secret that only some would be lucky enough to find.

[Edit:]
Ah, I see that someone else described the same experience in another thread:

Originally posted by Bashie:

I ran into Baak near the beginning of my experience, long before I had completed any of the structures discovered through frequencies. My viewer was zoomed all the way in, I followed him for a bit and noticed that he vanished from the map when I zoomed out even a little bit, and appeared again when I was zoomed in..

I took a screenshot of what he said to me at the time, but not what he looks like on the map.

[SPOILERS] http://i.imgur.com/ZRHmhgY.png

EDIT: Just found them again! http://i.imgur.com/OtsGTiJ.png

R.R. Black Circle with White Dot
J.F. Blue Circle with White Dot
P.H.F. Orange Circle with White Dot
Your Cursor. White Circle with Black Dot
Baak. Completely White Circle

Also, after completing the game I was able to click "Origin" in the escape menu for some additional information, the three circles next to it had been filled in with black dots, making it accessible.