HUD - Minimap incorrect

  1. Minor point. On the minimap itself, the arrowhead symbol for the current user appears to be drawn on top of a blue circle (like all other users) - which is confusing, as it makes it look like another rider is very close by. Please consider making the current user’s arrowhead just an arrowhead, with no circle at all.

  2. Main point - the profile at the bottom of the Minimap is at times confusing, unhelpful, and misleading.
    (a) The arrowhead within a circle for representing the current user is so small that it is not always clear if it is pointing left or right. The circle is unnecessary. Why not use just an arrowhead? Also, raise it higher than the white circles for everyone else.

(b) Having the arrowhead travel to the very end of the profile means only that we don’t see the upcoming profile. This is unhelpful. I’m also not sure I see the point in having the arrowhead point (and move) right at times, then switch to left. Please consider the following: (1) Arrowhead always points to the right (like the arrowhead for the course profile above). (2) Arrowhead starts at the left margin of the minimap and moves to the right until it is 1/3 of the way across. (3) Arrowhead then remains at this position, 1/3 of the way across, and the profile moves to the left as one rides. This way one sees some of what one has already ridden but mainly sees what is coming up ahead.

(c) Misleading/incorrect item. This may be difficult to explain in text, but I’ll try. The profile (at the bottom of the minimap) makes radical changes mid-ride. These changes include features that were never part of the chosen route. For example, riding Magnificent 8, after leaving “Las Vegas” and the southern end of Titans Grove, the route makes a right turn. Upon making that right turn, suddenly there’s a hill behind me that was never part of my route. That hill is the S curve on the island to the south, part of Mountain Route, as best as I can tell. So it appears to me that Zwift’s programming is such that the roads are broken up into what I’ll call “sections”. Each section (from one road junction to another) seems to have a “primary” route assignment (probably the first route to use that section, i.e. the route for which that section was created). Any route created later only “borrows” that section from the “primary route”. Thus, the minimap profile shown not necessarily the profile for the route chosen, but rather it is the profile for the route to which the “section” the rider is on was originally assigned. Hope this makes sense.
(c1) A minor point – the Riders Nearby List often changes drastically at these same road junctions, when I change from one “section” to another. Example: let’s say I’m riding Mag 8 and closely approaching the junction I described above. I should of course see other riders on Mag 8 ahead of me. However, I should also see anyone riding Mountain 8 that has just passed that junction, even as I have not yet reached it (assuming that other is within the number of riders that the screen allows). I believe that the rider list does not reflect the merging routes until I make that turn.

Yes, it’s terrible. I haven’t heard from anyone who’s satisfied with the profile or map in the game. There are numerous threads about it dating back years.

And yes, the nearby riders list is another fine mess. It only shows riders on your side of the intersection (regardless of what route (if any) they might actually be following). That is, when you approach the intersection, riders in front of you disappear from the list altogether one by one, and once you pass it, they reappear but everybody behind you disappears (for a while, anyway).

The route profile appears to only apply to whatever segment you’re currently riding, not the route you selected at the start of the ride.

My pet peeves are:

  • The mysterious way your progress is either right-to-left or left-to-right. Maybe it’s forward vs. reverse of a segment, but there are no cues about that.
  • The useless vertical size of the profile. On the road I typically keep the climb profile up on my bike computer. Because, the gradients are the most important information while on a climb. Can’t do that on Zwift

Yes, it could be a lot better.