What if the “Close the gap” message could be replaced with a “drag bar” that could indicate the current drag. In steep hills, this bar would not show much impact of drafting, while at high speeds you would see a big impact.
Alternatively, you could have a “drafting bar” that would indicate how much effect the current drafting has on the drag.
It does not have to be a bar. It could be just an area that is changing color, a drag force vector changing length, a gauge or similar.
I guess this is not a new idea, but I just wanted to get it in here on the new forum.
I like riding in first person mode as opposed to following my avatar, but in this mode you use the ability to see for sure that you are in the draft (rider sitting up in follow mode.) If would be nice if there was a symbol that could pop up on the HUD showing that you are, in fact, in the draft.
Obviously, but they model the game physics on the real world. So there shouldn’t be a “you’re in” or “you’re out” draft model, it should be dependent on how close behind the rider(s) in front you are.
In real life we use visual cues to stay in the draft. It’s easy to judge the distance between your front wheel and the rear wheel of the rider in front. If the gap is too big or growing, add power. If the gap is too small or shrinking, ease off a bit.
It’s not so easy to judge that gap in Zwift. Mostly I’m using views where I’m looking from behind my avatar and can’t even see my front wheel.
Maybe what’s needed is a Distance or Gap Bar: A thin vertical bar on one side of the screen representing the distance to the rider in front. Distance from 2 m down to zero. You could adjust your power to stay in the draft based on the gap and how fast it’s growing or shrinking - just like IRL.
This would be most useful when trying to draft off a single rider, or a small group. In a large group, a Distance Bar shouldn’t be necessary.
In either case, it would still be nice to see how much drafting benefit we are getting - a display of watts saved or a percentage of power vs. what we’d have to put out to maintain the current speed in the absence of any draft.
While there is a draft indicator in Zwift displaying your distance to the rider in front, the draft mechanisms in Zwift go beyond that indicator and don’t represent everything going on. You could be at 0 metres to the rider in front thinking you are good, but your draft calculation could be decreasing rapidly, which you would only figure out ~10 seconds later when you are 3 meters behind doing the same power.
I speculate the hidden draft physics in Zwift increase and decrease with time behind a rider. ie. if you are entering a draft the advantage increases until you hit 0 meters. Then there is a specified amount of time until the draft decreases regardless of your 0 meter behind position, and you fall back at a calcution until you counter the math.
As more of a TT’r, I’ve been working on my Zwift skills which seem to require a good amount of short bursts and recovery after.
I don’t think I’d want a true draft indicator on screen. I think it would take some of the fun out of it.
I agree some sort of draft indicator would be nice. I think what percentage of the full draft effect you are taking advantage of would be nice.
On a related topic since you mention the views; I think a handlebar view would be very useful. I have tried the 1st person view but it gets a little difficult to actually gauge distance, a handlebar view which shows your handlebars and front wheel would be useful imo.
I realize that my avatar reacts to drafting, namely it sits up when I’m in the draft. However, I never see anyone else sitting up. Is this only visible on your avatar? I believe that drafting benefit increases in larger groups but there’s no indication that people in front of me are drafting, their avatars are always low.
Zwift uses the visual cue of sitting up as an indicator that you are in the draft. It can be a little confusing though, since Zwift will also have your avatar sit up at slow solo speeds.
Please create an indicator of the amount of draft a rider is receiving. Could be like a dial or something… 0-100, where 100 would be the maximum drafting benefit.