r/interestingasfuck • u/HimelTy • 3h ago

View flying over the Sahara desert

• Upvotes

99% Upvoted

484 comments sorted by

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u/hamfist_ofthenorth 3h ago edited 2h ago

Everybody's joking but imagine getting lost in that on foot. Countless people have, through human history.

Or trying to travel across it on a camel, in a caravan.

Crossing this desert in ancient times seems like it could be just as crazy as crossing an ocean.

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u/DeepestBeige 3h ago

Guess camels aren’t called “ships of the desert” for nothing, eh

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u/qfwfq_of_qwerty 3h ago

Yeah but I wouldn't want to find out that camels are opportunistic carnivores, and that they call us humans "the wandering junk food of the desert"

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u/TheSaltySeagull87 1h ago

Jeez 😭🤣

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u/MelangeBot 2h ago edited 1h ago

It's actually getting too warm for camels in deserts because of global warming and they are breeding worse, and dying younger and it's a huge problem for the nomads that depend on them or the people that use them to make money on tourists. I believe the global camel population is down 15% or some huge number in the last 10 years.

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u/Common-Accountant-57 3h ago

I can’t drive a camel. So it would be useless to me in this vastness. I would die probably two dunes over from wherever I started.

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u/Lovesick_Octopus 3h ago

Some people smoke 'em

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u/Common-Accountant-57 3h ago

True. I could handle those camels, maybe it’s not hopeless after all.

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u/Significant_Stop_391 32m ago

that's why Camels took bonus damage from tower and castle, because they are technically a ship

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u/LatkaXtreme 3h ago

I remember one redditor telling a story about when he was a teen he was on vacation in that area and they had motorcycles which they used to cross just a couple of dunes, then turn around. They cross the dunes on the way back and... the camp was gone. They look around and they don't see it anywhere. Just sand as far as the eyes can see.

His only luck was they had flareguns for such an occasion, and they heard the answering bang, and noticed they went completely on the wrong way back and missed the camp a few miles.

Seeing this video it's not hard to imagine how.

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u/DavidBrent39 2h ago

Reminds me of Mauro Prosperi who got lost running a marathon in the Sahara. Survived by drinking wet wipes and bat blood

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauro_Prosperi

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u/BattleOfWitsHasBegun 1h ago

This was an insane read! Thanks for sharing

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u/shezshezshezshez 1h ago

What’s crazier is if you click the link to the Marabout shrine where he sheltered, there is literally nothing around for hundreds of miles… except for this one guy chilling on a camel.

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u/writers_block 37m ago

wet wipes and bat blood

Tonight's lineup at my underground punk venue.

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u/haneraw 1h ago

God bless GPS.

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u/TexasVampire 3h ago

It's worse than you think. Along one of the main trade routes through the Sahara there's a gap that's to wide to cross just with the water camels could carry, so traders would have to have another group sent to meet them with more water partway through that desert.

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u/bonerfleximus 1h ago

How did the group sent to deliver water get back if they didnt have any water?

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u/RigorousSnake 1h ago

Partway =/= midway, the first group travels for like 80% of the gap but needs another group to bring them water from their destination to cover for the last 20%

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u/actually_ur_mom 3h ago

Most of my country is made up of the sahara desert, so many people get lost in the far south, most of them are tourists/ non-natives (Touareg), most of them die and their bodies get lost, others go mad. It's a terrifying fate.

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u/hamfist_ofthenorth 2h ago

Is it also true that the dunes move over time, yes? Because the wind is always blowing them around?

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u/actually_ur_mom 1h ago

Yes, it's true. It's actually part of the reason many people get lost, because the roads get covered so fast that if you, let's say, camped somewhere and the next morning tried to go back where you came from, you couldn't find the road, and the signs aren't very frequent.

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u/Ok-Jackfruit-6873 3h ago

I'd be hoping like hell that plane doesn't crash

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u/Salmonman4 3h ago

There are some movies of that scenario

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u/-Supposably- 1h ago

Of a plane crashing? Doubt it. That’s pretty specific.

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u/Salmonman4 57m ago

For example Flight of the Phoenix is a movie about a plane crashing in the Gobi-desert and the survivors having to come up with a way to get back to civilisation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_of_the_Phoenix_(2004_film)

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u/Swimming-Food-9024 2h ago

that’s applicable in all plane scenarios though…

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u/zzzthelastuser 3h ago

So let's say the plane is about to crash and you still get the choice:

Would you rather take the parachute and hope for the best that you won't get lost and slowly die from dehydration or die a quick death with the plane?

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u/DeathAndGlory1 2h ago

I'll take the parachute. I might not survive the desert, but I'll take the odds.

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u/ultranoobian 2h ago

So let's say the plane is about to crash and you still get the choice:

Would you rather take the parachute and hope for the best that you won't get lost and slowly die from dehydration or die a quick death with the plane?

Depends on the plane, and fuel load.

It looks like a modernish airliner, it probably has a emergency locating beacon and also filed a flight plan, so rescue could easily search along it's last known position, or pinging location.

There appears to be plenty of 'flat' area for a landing, even assuming rocks and debris, that could mean a 'gentler' landing than you might believe compared to hitting the side of a dune.

If it's got lots of fuel remaining, the risk of a fiery death could be more likely if the aircraft breaks up during crash landing.

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u/BlueWaffle_86 2h ago

Stay with the plane. You’ll most likely be found within days.

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u/SnooKiwis6709 3h ago

“What do you mean you can’t see me? I’m right by the massive sand dune.”

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u/Hidefininja 2h ago

In fact, celestial navigation was critically important for traversing large deserts in ancient times just as it was for crossing oceans! When there are no landmarks in your local environment, using the stars as fixed points to facilitate navigation is the way.

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u/filtersweep 2h ago

Really? As recently as 5000 years ago it was lush, green, abundant water…. Full of life. In ancient times, it was awesome.

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u/Hairy_Mycologist_945 1h ago

Also fascinating that all of this was green savannah about 9,000 years ago, and goes cyclically between extreme desert and green savannah over the course of millennia. This version of the desert is fairly young and some of the traces of the ancient people who lived there still exist as carvings on various rock outcroppings. Depending on how the climate shifts all this will probably be savannah again in the far future, at least for a while.

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u/buak 1h ago

Yeah. "North African Humid Periods occurred every 21,000 years and were determined by changes in Earth’s orbital precession"

It's crazy how that cyclical change has shaped the world

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u/carloselcoco 2h ago

seems like it could be just as crazy as crossing an ocean.

Almost like it used to be an ocean

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u/itsRickO 2h ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/CTwXZxO8oA2eQ
Not sure a camel can fit. But would be sick to see

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u/Miserable_Data3679 3h ago

Copy paste textures. This came out in 2026 btw.

How lazy have the devs become.

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u/RowanWinterlace 3h ago

The idea that the Sahara Desert was only patched in a decade ago is frying me. We hadn't bought the Expansion Pack yet 🤣

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u/Downtown-Rate-9404 3h ago

Apply dlss 5

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u/TheOnceAndFutureTurk 3h ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/3oz8xur099boo4N9aU

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u/thedaveness 3h ago

Idk, we might have some time before water returns to Arrakis.

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u/waf_xs 2h ago

3500 years to be precise

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u/AMDIntel 2h ago

I don't need my life looking like slop at 15fps lol

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u/MustardSquirt 2h ago

We never loaded this chunk before

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u/Dopplegangr1 29m ago

It's just a placeholder for now, they haven't even bothered to spawn any assets besides the landscape

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u/Areo52 3h ago

The modern, dry Sahara Desert formed during a rapid climate shift between 8,000 and 4,500 years ago

smh, no update in 4500 years. What the devs are doing

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u/Aberr_nt 1h ago

They're rolling out the "climate change" dlc as we speak. Have some patience!

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u/BenAdaephonDelat 45m ago

I can't believe they're still pushing ahead with this even after all the fan backlash. Players do NOT want this.

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u/tuhn 43m ago

They say that they don't want this but still behave in-game like they do.

Just give players what they truly want.

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u/TheTaurenCharr 3h ago

Makes you wonder if this game's worth the subscription. I'm already looking for a private server.

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u/teakwood54 1h ago

Reported! Private servers are against ToS.

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u/LesJugesDesEnfers 3h ago

The devs didn't expect anyone to bother going there, it was only supposed to be seen from afar. You would have done the same.

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u/Accountformorrowind 3h ago

Bethesda learned nothing from starfield

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u/Ghstfce 3h ago

Small indie company, that Earth

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u/Meta6olic 3h ago

2026? Try 5 billion years. Very close to star citizen.

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u/rokomotto 1h ago

Makes sense. Its out of bounds.

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u/Clashing_Thunder 1h ago

Ever seen hardware prices recently? Gotta reuse that one texture now to save RAM and VRAM.

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u/Viriato_the_man 3h ago

Mymy ☺️

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u/No_You_123 3h ago

No shit you easily get lost here.

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u/FranzFerdinand51 1h ago

Considering the fact that the dunes also slowly migrate? Idk how anyone DIDNT get lost there before GPS lol.

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u/SandmanKFMF 3h ago

Low res repeatable texture. 😒

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u/AggressiveSkill6365 3h ago

Damn, just what I was going to say 😅

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u/SandmanKFMF 3h ago

64x64 at most!

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u/UndecidedLee 16m ago

There's a GPU shortage, they literally can't render better.

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u/JamesMariner 3h ago

Unplayable

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u/heart-aroni 3h ago

devs fix your game

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u/IllusiveJack 3h ago

Reminds me of that motocross game with the huge cliffs on the border that if you managed to cross it, it would fire you into the sky. Good times.

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u/Speartree 2h ago

Motorcross madness! It was a hit at our lan parties back in the day!

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u/GoodWarmMilk 3h ago

Devs are so lazy nowadays

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u/AL-SHEDFI 3h ago

You have an older version, download the remaster with DLSS5 .😜

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u/Clair_Osbcurious 2h ago

I’ll wait till the sequel. Wake me up when Life 2 comes out.

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u/proost1 3h ago

The Sahara obviously got a discount on Microsoft Flight Simulator 98 graphics.

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u/Holiday_Pain_3879 3h ago

Makes sense... there aren't much users there so devs took this route

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u/BolunZ6 3h ago

And the one stranded in that area probably dead before they could tell a tale

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u/UnderstandingFar3051 3h ago

peocedurally generated

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u/Hindu_Niilista 3h ago

To think that all this sand was once a vivid forest

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u/PresidentOfAlphaBeta 3h ago

With lakes

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u/FelonyInTheTrunk 1h ago

There's a place in Egypt called valley of the whales. It's crazy to see the huge fossilized whale skeletons there.

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u/Larry_Wickes 1h ago

Oh man, I bet the beaches were amazing!

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u/a1usiv 26m ago

I would guess there are more human remains and artifacts still buried intact under these sands than anywhere else on Earth. Populated and travelled for thousands of yrs, and now one of the driest places--which is great for preservation.

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u/Ok-Connection-389 2h ago

Let's fill it up with solar panels

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u/rifwasbetter0 1h ago

Maintenance and cleaning makes it less cost effective, Morocco tried 2 decades ago and it failed,

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u/rydencode 1h ago

2 decades ago is incomparable today in cost & tech; the price of solar (photovoltaics) has dropped by several magnitudes

and in fact they're already doing it

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u/Prize_Sector5854 34m ago

It's not the tech that's the issue. It's the dust accumulation on the panels in an area where water and cleaning becomes cost prohibitive.

Not to mebtion the unknown ecological impacts of covering large areas of a desert.

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u/GimmeYourFries 3h ago

I’d love to hear from someone who can explain why all the dunes end up so nearly symmetrical.

This looks like a landscape from Dragon Warrior for NES.

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u/Zebedeuepaminondas 3h ago

Same wind and no relevant topographic features.

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u/morelebaks 50m ago

I find it very interesting how we find recognizable patterns in nature to be almost magical, while the fact is that self repetition/self alignment is a very natural thing. It almost seems like its the Earth's weather systems and lithosphere that are unusually complex and chaotic compared to the rest of the universe.

This "mythical" alignment happens quite often - tidal locking of moons, basalt columns, regular bands of wind currents on gas giants, radial distortions and "Spiders" on Mars, Saturn’s north polar Hexagon, concentric ridges on Europa etc.

The thing is, these phenomenon arise when there is not much structural complexity to the system, like the lack of surface on gas giants that would distort the wind patterns; homogenus structure of ground material like with basalt columns; both homogenus ground and unchanging wind currents that create these dunes on the photo.

The fact these phenomena seem rare might be more about the sheer structural complexity of our biosphere. We have so many different bedrocks, differently structured grounds, seasons, hydrological cycle, tectonic plates and the list goes on - and all that makes Earth's crust incredibly rich in diversity and that breaks up the systemic "urge" to converge on simple regular patterns.

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u/mayalihamur 3h ago

Probably thanks to wind and sand physics. Every time a dune forms, it blocks the wind, creating a calm "sheltered zone" right behind it where the next dune literally cannot grow. The next mound of sand can only start piling up where the wind comes back down to the ground. And this probably happens at the same distance every time. Also these dunes are not static, they move. Small dunes move faster and crash into big ones until they all average out, and the whole desert organises itself into such neat, repeating rows.

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u/SuspiciouslySuspect2 3h ago

Same principle as how the winds do this to water waves. The particles are just a bazillion times larger.

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u/debitcreddit 3h ago

Thou art correct

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u/PaddedTiger 3h ago

Practical Engineering briefly touches on this in his video on washboard dirt roads.

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u/IslandVisible5023 3h ago

When you you use cheats to go to out of bounds area of the map

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u/TFoxHunter 3h ago

Earth is really saving memory putting repeating textures in low pop zones

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u/Tutes013 3h ago

All silly jokes aside, I am truly awed by the vastness of it all.

Endless sand dunes as far as the eye can see and so far further still. It's humbling. Some day, I would like to see it. See the deserts and the people it shaped by its harsh beauty.

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u/DeepestBeige 3h ago

Read “Arabian Sands”by Wilfred Thesiger if you haven’t yet. You won’t regret it.

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u/Tutes013 3h ago

I'm already looking for a copy. Thanks for the shout <3

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u/LesJugesDesEnfers 2h ago

Keep in mind only a small portion of the Sahara is purely sand. Less than 30%. There are also mountains, plateaus, rocky areas. It's a lot more varied than most people think, with some landscapes that look out of this world.

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u/Raphajacob 2h ago

It is also mind blowing that the Sahara desert plays a big role in keeping the Amazon forest alive by sending minerals and nutrients thru winds

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u/ATMisboss 22m ago

The other thing people don't tell you is how huge the dunes are, they can be hundreds of feet tall. It's pretty incredible to see

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u/El_Peregrine 1h ago

This is the Sahara (Murzuq sand sea, Libya). For scale, our camp is middle left, and that is 3 tents and two Toyota land cruisers. It's hard to comprehend how vast that is. You can drive for hours, and the landscape is just endless, unchanging mountains of dunes.

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u/borisbanana77 3h ago

Ctrl+C. Ctrl+VVVVVVVVVVVVV.

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u/qfwfq_of_qwerty 3h ago

Ctrl+C, Ctrl+VVVVV, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+VV will be quicker

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u/Fine_Neighborhood957 3h ago

Crazy to think the Sahara is roughly the size of the continental United States!!!

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u/Feriman22 3h ago

Crazy! I don't want to lost here.

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u/Azrael-XIII 3h ago

Looks like a prime spot for some data centers… lol

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u/Petellius 3h ago

Except for... You know, the entire lack of water 🤣

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u/PimpMyHide 46m ago

More critically, no residential area to ruin. Everyone knows that AI runs on human misery.

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u/Petellius 3h ago

Everyone stole the same damn joke I was going to make 😅🤣 We're all giant computer game nerds on here!

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u/Unhappy_Arugula_2154 3h ago

I get why explorers get lost so easily now

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u/LexHanley 3h ago

I forgot who said the expression to me first but "Allah made the Sahara to be alone with his thoughts" and you definitely get a vibe of where that kind of expression comes from

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u/Vile_4_Awhile 3h ago

Go to the hill and make a left

When you get to the next hill make another left

When you get to the next hill make another left

Then the next hill make another left

You'll be outta here in no time

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u/OldEquation 1h ago

I find it both awe inspiring and scary flying over the Sahara. I’ve crossed it a few times flying London-Lagos.

The sheer scale of it and the emptiness is impressive. You look out of the window and there’s just nothing, just barren sand. You look out of the window again a couple of hours later and there’s still nothing. It’s huge. Then I think what would happen if the plane went down; you’re a very long way from any help.

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u/johnwynne3 56m ago

It’s just over this next ridge…

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u/Alpinekiwi 3h ago

Imagine crossing this

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u/ScatteredSignal 2h ago

A more arduos task than climbing Everest nowadays one could think.

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u/RecognitionSecret666 3h ago

How is one rescued if he gets lost?

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u/AlwaysGnarly 3h ago

How many dead bodies did we just see not knowing it?

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u/Alpinekiwi 3h ago

Six

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u/degeneratex80 3h ago

Or 7? 🤷🏻‍♂️

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u/lnTheGrimDarkness 2h ago

They aren't. There's no way someone just randomly finds you there.

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u/agiantdog33 2h ago

It's larger than the entire landmass of Australia. Someone could be at sea in the Atlantic ocean and have a better chance of being near a human settlement.

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u/Ok-Account-5701 3h ago

Bless the Maker and His Water

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u/opinionated_penguin 3h ago

Ctrl + C, Ctrl + v Ctrl + C, Ctrl + v Ctrl + C, Ctrl + v Ctrl + C, Ctrl + v Ctrl + C, Ctrl + v Ctrl + C, Ctrl + v Ctrl + C, Ctrl + v Ctrl + C, Ctrl + v Ctrl + C, Ctrl + v Ctrl + C, Ctrl + v Ctrl + C, Ctrl + v Ctrl + C, Ctrl + v

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u/No_Volume_5752 3h ago

Another desert down south:

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u/adhesivo 3h ago

Exact location?

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u/Kiwi_CunderThunt 3h ago

What's up with the recycled textures? What a bad game

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u/Mr_IsLand 23m ago

can't help but think about what ancient archeological or paleontological discoveries must be lurking beneath that sand...

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u/deckard1980 3h ago

Yeah i went on a hot air balloon ride in Dubai once. Total waste of money. Sand is sand no matter how high you go

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u/Fisherman386 3h ago

Yeah, that texture needs some updating, we're in 2026, come on.

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u/Anonamonanon 3h ago

Dude. It's your render distance. Update your settings!!

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u/PuffyMagoo 3h ago

Its like a whole new world...

https://giphy.com/gifs/d8YBM0IgPszle

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u/RJEM96 3h ago

Copy paste...

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u/Dylan909 3h ago

Imagine someone is lost out there looking up at you and you have no idea

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u/E_VALIANT 3h ago

Copy, paste, copy, paste, copy, paste, copy, paste…

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u/RigamortisRooster 3h ago

Id hate to trek across that shit

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u/Rynu07 3h ago

Pretty sure I played this map on Delta Force in the late 90s.

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u/TheSpanxxx 3h ago

Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V

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u/Saraasaa 3h ago

Looks like a world generation glitch in minecraft

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u/Odd-Cheesecake8618 3h ago

I think about the miracle over the Mojave all the time

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u/swiwwcheese 3h ago

always hard to picture all of this was a savannah just thousands of years ago

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u/grieverx99 3h ago

Starfield is that you ?

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u/captainpeapod 2h ago

There are several instances during ww2 where pilots got lost over the Sahara because it looks like an endlessly repeating pixel map from flight simulator’95

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u/JaboyMaceWindu 2h ago

Look for worm sign

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u/blahblah19999 2h ago

Flying over the desert desert

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u/l_______I 2h ago

Finally a place old flight sims could replicate with near 100% accuracy

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u/Roll_Future 1h ago

It's like when the developer forgets to add the textures.

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u/NewBag9855 1h ago

I had no idea it would be so uniform like this.

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u/Tendibear 1h ago

Millions and millions and millions of

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u/Bullsht999 47m ago

Give each tile a random rotation on the Z axis , DONE !

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u/Strude187 41m ago

Reminds me the repeating pattern you get on a sandy beach caused by the waves lapping

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u/GlumPomegranate870 35m ago

"dude im here and I don't see you." "FFS, I'm at the sand dune directly to your west." ". . ." "WEST"

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u/adikdik 29m ago

Dune soundtrack played in my head.

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u/ia42 15m ago

Again with "The desert" desert?

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u/SoggyCrouton_23 9m ago

The spice fields are there for taking! House Harkonnen otw.

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u/Ccat50991 3h ago

Dev got lazy and copy paste the map

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u/z0mbiefool 3h ago

Suddenly those old ground textures seem more realistic than I originally thought

https://giphy.com/gifs/3o6wNFZigKnOIjFHos

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u/Agent_Smith_IHTP 3h ago

PS2 games using the same texture over and over.

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u/QuirkyWish3081 3h ago

He flew over my well

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u/qfwfq_of_qwerty 3h ago

That's what she said... in Beduin

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u/No-Chemistry4851 3h ago

Procedural generation at it's best

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u/Interesting-Step-654 3h ago

It's wild what it all takes to make that happen.

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u/Hazy-azure 3h ago

Can't say a good place to crash exist, but if it does, this aint it.

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u/EndComprehensive8699 3h ago

I always tell my friends this is simulation we live in...

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u/TidderUsername123 3h ago

Are. those called sand dunes?

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u/IncredibleBihan 3h ago

It's oddly beautiful isn't it. Like an ocean of sand.

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u/FireTriad 3h ago

I would expect more from GTA 6 map

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u/Gr00m3d 3h ago

What ancient horrors slumber beneath the timeless ocean of sands.

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u/Icy-Estimate-3606 3h ago

gta 6 graphics belike when it finally release.

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u/Soggy_Detective_9527 3h ago

Lots of sand mining opportunities.

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u/odaniel99 3h ago

It's like a suburban subdivision in the desert.

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u/IAlwaysOutsmartU 3h ago

Clearly they got lazy designing the sahara and chose to slap on it a repeating texture that would morph the flat sand plane and call it a job well done.

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u/AdditionalCheetah354 3h ago

I lost my wedding ring .. but rented a metal detector