I had access to a Macbook Air M2 so I tried it out with Zwift. No shadows.
Weird, I wonder why I wasn’t getting them.
Yeah that post hasn’t aged well.
Oh wow! Did you do anything to get those shadows going? Is this specific to M2 macs as opposed to M1/M1 Pro?
It’s not mine, just somebody who contacted me about it. The Zwiftalizer screenshot shows that the M2 GPU isn’t recognised by the game, and so it’s defaulting to Medium profile (which gets rider shadows). This is what happened with M1 devices originally, as explained further up the thread.
Got it, thanks. Just tried installing Zwift on my partner’s M2 MBA and did indeed see shadows, though limited to 1080p:
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Yeah 1080p is the maximum game resolution for Medium profile.
That was true for me first time I tried Zwift. Old windows laptop could barely manage Zwift.
So Apple TV 4K was a definite upgrade in performance and ease of use.
Now I use a desktop Mac it’s the other way around, it is fast enough that I don’t want to use Apple TV anymore. Besides also the desktop has much nicer graphics.
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Hi!
Are there any updates for Zwift to bring “high Details” to the m1 and m2 chips?
The support told me about a year ago that there will be soon a solution to take advantage of the GPU power of these systems.
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This is the latest I’ve seen (a quote from over on Reddit): M1 / Apple Silicon compatibility - #261 by Dave_ZPCMR
Talk about shadows and such makes me wonder how much of ‘The Zwift Experience’ is consumed with shadows and people and such. How about making it an option to see the people. How about an option to not see the shadows. I find the people sometimes so distracting, and never missed the shadows. Sometimes the shadows were really distracting because they just weren’t natural looking enough. If removing them would help Zwift run better, I’d be okay with turning them off.
The repeating characters, the way their feet are penetrating the sidewalk, the way some seem to circle and stuff… Just sometimes so distracting. The scenery is great! The crescent moon I saw last night on AdZ was amazing. The sun set too. Just my opinion… (Too many times I saw the characters checking their watches as I rode by in Makuri Island city scenes. Am I that slow?)
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That option is called “Apple TV” 
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That’s funny. My first uses of the ATV weren’t very good. A ride I was on died seconds before it ended and I lost the whole thing. At least on a computer I have a chance of saving what was written to that point. But if I had to travel, I’d thrown one in a bag and take a lightweight trainer. Better than nothing…
I only use the ATV, and it has only failed me once (it lost all Bluetooth connections during a ride and would not reconnect). Otherwise, in a year it has been a rock-solid, easy-to-use device. Especially now that Zwift finally sorted out the UI (mostly).
That said, I do wish they would upgrade the profile for the M1 if it is more capable.
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Still no official updates on this? 
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I to love using my Mac mini or Apple TV but it looks like poop on my 83” oled. Really sad considering they both have the power to run it at 4K 30. Also with apple devices there has never been a single drop.
My solution for a small form factor living room pc was to run zwift on my asrock desk mini with 4650g. Same price as my Mac mini and it has the graphics apu power to run zwift at 4K 60.
I also can stream or capture the game through obs but I do have to drop to 1440@60 and only use one camera. I limit my bit rate to 4000 and cut the stream down to 1080@30 on Twitch.
I to look forward to zwift optimizing for apple. However this is not a new issue and up till now zwift has shown they don’t care. I still hope as my apple products are more reliable, power efficient and a smoother experience.
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Full M1/M2 compatibility is way overdue. This is pushing me to look at alternatives to Zwift.
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Imagine even just having some updated communications from Zwift on this matter.
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