Graphics quality on Apple TV 4K 2022

Hello Guys,

I’ve been using Zwift for several years now and I decided to purchase the last apple tv 4k of 2022 (it was released beginning of this month).
Zwift starts very quickly in comparison to my laptop and the interface is very responsive.

However, the graphics quality is very low. For instance there’s no shadows at all. When I look at screenshots from old apple tv of 2018, shadows are displayed properly and overall graphics look better.

How is this possible as the new apple tv is much more powerful?
Maybe specific display profiles are not available yet for the new device?

Thanks in advance for your replies!

Because Zwift haven’t accounted for it yet, so it’s defaulting to the Apple TV HD graphics profile. This also happened when the 2021 4K model was released.

Whilst Apple does have open access beta testing programs for its software, its much more restricted for hardware betas. I would suspect that Zwift have had the same duration of access to the new Apple TV as you have.

It’s the same hardware found in the iPhone 13 and 14 series, and iPad Mini. As such they’ve effectively had access to it for over a year. It’s just the profile which needs assigning. Will probably be sorted next week.

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Thanks for the reply, I hope that the dev team will have some time soon to sort this out.
In the meantime will install zwift on an iphone 13 to see if it looks better.

Sorry but no. “Same chipset” is not quite the same as “the same hardware”. Worked with enough hardware teams to know where that sort of assumption leads. Yes, you can make a lot of good estimates of the device capabilities, but the proof will still only be when you get hands on access.

Fair enough, but they all get Basic profile in Zwift anyway.

Has there been any movement on this? Is the newest aptv still on basic profile?

“No, visual change won’t be apparent until next year sometime.”

Original source: Reddit - Dive into anything

I would go ahead and assume that’s “late 2023” to avoid getting my expectations up. They’re laying the foundation to take advantage of Apple silicon but it’s not going to happen soon.

Yes, still the basic profile…

Still Basic after todays update?

There has been no sign that profile will improve any time soon. My guess is when it happens it will be in the release notes. The last two updates have been bug fixes for the critical flaws in 1.33.0. Don’t expect it soon.

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Hi All,

Now in 2023, Just thought I’d bump this conversation topic rather than starting a new one! Very similar story on my end, bought the newest ATV with hopes of getting an amazing graphics experience and got Zwifting in late 2022.

I’m still experiencing the default graphics, large group rides are near impossible as it’s so glitchy and some parts of some worlds are just not worth riding in.

Anyone have any tips/updates? Everything is welcome!

Cheers,

Clayton

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It appears the developers have zero interest in supporting updated hardware which would provide an ongoing better user experience on that platform.

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same here!!! very disappointed in the ATV 4K 2022 graphics experience. So much was promised but nothing delivered.

I will not take away from the extremally easy usability of the ATV and Zwift, like no other, but graphics feel left behind…

This doesn’t sound right. I don’t have any issue with the above on my ATV (4K 1st gen).

I would reinstall Zwift if you haven’t done that recently, as a first step.

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Everything?

Maybe try a PC!

(only half joking!)

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Hi Steve, Thanks for following up so quickly! I’ve re-installed the app multiple times throughout this past year, and it’s always defaulted to the basic graphics settings.

Are there any other potential solutions on my end I could try?

ATV only gets the basic graphics settings. You had commented about the graphics being ‘glitchy’ though, which is, I think, what Steve was inquiring about.

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Hi Nigel, I was always under the impression that Zwift would be rolling out updates to make their graphics capabilities more compatible with the capabilities of the new ATV. Is this not the case or have I misunderstood something?