Since the latest update/rollback on pc steering is effectively broken in groups.
I’m using the zwift play controller on Windows.
If you are alone on the road you have full control to steer as normal. If you have any riders in your vicinity, spent matter whether ahead behind, left, right, your ability to steer is limited to the point where it feels like you are trying to turn through quicksand.
Might have been intended to be a feature to stop you moving about so much in big groups, but the problem is that it stops you turning normally into open space, for instance when you are at the very front or back with Space to either side or when you are on the side of a group and want to turn into a the space beside you.
It seems like it is just seeing whether riders are within a radius of you and limiting steering that way. It’s really frustrating and honestly worse than just not having it. You can’t position yourself in a group at all now (before there was commission detection, but you could brake or speed up to find gaps) or take a sharp line for a sprint to stop riders drafting you.
Before there was what appeared to be collision detection that stopped you during through people but otherwise let you steer freely. That was fast better and more natural than this now
Steering has also become really sluggish for me when aroun other riders. It used to be that I could turn into open space (e.g. I could turn easily into a space on my left if there were riders on my right). Now it seems like if there are any riders in the vicity of my avatar, the ability to turn is lessened considerably. Is this intended? is it something that is being fixed?
The previous collision detection was way better in terms of stopping you moving around too much in a group but allowing freedom to turn when you had the space to do so. Now it feels very frustrating not being able to move freely even when it appears there is ample space to do so.
It had an affect in the TTT on thursday too. I might end up next to the group and unable to reposition muself into the draft because the turning was so slow due to other riders just being near me (not blocking me)
Yes, steering was changed intentionally to be more difficult to turn when you have riders next to you. You should be able to steer when you have open space to your side but no overlap with other riders. I understand it might feel frustrating to not be able to steer inside a pack but as you can imagine having everybody with steering overlapping each other on top of other riders didn’t look good.
The previous collision detection had other problems, most notably dragging riders to the sides of the road.
If you can provide any video footage of a situation where it clearly feels wrong that might help us figure out any problem.
I’ll take a video later. I understand the reason for wanting to limit the moment in the middle of a pack, but to me it frequently now feels like I should be able to turn and move freely but cannot do so other than very slowly.
One clear time this occurs is when you are at the side of the group, you should be free to turn further away from the riders (into the apex of a corner) but you are currently stuck. THis limits your ability also to pull out to the side of a group and sprint to get a gap.
As it presently is it feels worse than just not being able to steer at all, because you are so frequently limited in being able to steer when you should be able to. For me the previous steering was WAY better before this change. It is just wholly frustrating now, putting in an input and getting such a weak response at times.
I’ll take a video soon to see if i I can show what I mean
Shuji at Zwift HQ here. I merged some posts from their original location into this dedicated thread about the steering refinements introduced in Zwift v 1.44.
We’d still like to the video of what you’re seeing on your end. Showing us different camera views, particularly in Cameras 2 and 3 will help. We appreciate you raising this up to us!
Hi Chris, i was experiencing similar issue but today was my 1st ride/race with the updated Zwift Play Firmware 1.1.1. and Zwift v.1.45. and i had no problems with moving left or right.
@DavidP and @shooj here is a video of the problem we are experiencing when drafting a rider with steering. When we move to left or right side when you are in draft you will be moved to the middle of the road and out of draft after 3seconds. This will happen always when you are in the draft. When you have no Draft you will stay in your lane.
I know it’s not the same…i just wanted to give you a notice of the problem i experience and everyone in our club that has steering. It’s really annoying cause you can’t stay in the draft for more than 3seconds.
Friday I did the Z race, and the Podium ride. Everything seemed seemed normal (the play connected as normal and the steering worked as per usual).
Saturday I Wanted to do an easy spin with a pace partner. When I logged in, everything seemed normal. It showed 6 devises connected. After I started my ride I noticed the Play were not working, neither was my heart rate monitor. I went to the pairing screen and it showed that heart rate had dropped off, and the Play controllers showed connecting. So I bailed. I ended my ride and completely logged out of Zwift.
When I logged back in, everything connected except for the Play (they buzzed like they normally did, but on the pairing screen it said connecting) After peddling for a bit, I noticed that the Play did eventually connect, but the steering was really slow. (barely moved from side to side. especially left)
I rode for 90 minutes. I would try steering occasionally. By the end of the ride, seemed to be working like normal. I am using Windows 11
I said nothing to my wife about it, until this morning.
She told me that everything connected as normal. She tried to do repack Ridge to warm up before her group ride. She said the steering was really slow and she couldn’t really steer back and forth. Not sure if it got any better. She didn’t use steering on group ride. She uses Android
Just my 2 cents. Hopefully it helps you figure out what is going on
I rode alone for one and a half hour today and 2 hours with Robopacer in France on Friday on version 1.45 and ZP 1.1 and had no issues. After that I upgraded ZP to 1.1.1 and noticed the same symptoms - very unresponsive steering in the Robopacer group in Watopia. When I stayed behind the group it suddenly became much more responsive.
No video here but steering is so slow in groups and generally buggy that I’ve stopped connecting a steering device. Based on @DavidP 's comments in the PD4.1 thread this is an intentional change to keep people from steering through each other in groups because it looked weird. IMO the change to lateral blocking of riders was needed as the “hitboxes” were too small before, but I think they’ve been made too big in the latest version. Somewhere in the middle is probably going to be a good point to land on.
here is a Twitch highlight to show what i mean. Twitch
you can see that:
(1) when not around other riders steering is ‘free’
(2) when you have riders seemingly on any side of you, steering is drastically slowed, even into open spaces
(3) you are able to phase through riders with no collission detection, it is just very slow
If there is a big enough group steering even into empty space so as to make a jump away to the front is extremely slow, which can also leave you out of the draft unable to move back into empty space to get more cover.
As someone else said above, steering is not worth using at the moment if this is the effect when in a group, it has really taken the experience from 9/10 down to a very frustrating 2/10 for me.
This wasn’t a particularly large bunch. When on a group ride the steering can get very bogged down when you are near the group, but still have space. I notice this in the mornings when I sweep some rides for r3R. At the back of the group my movement is crazy slow.
@shooj@DavidP not sure if its been adjusted, but felt significantly better on my ride this morning. Still moer sluggish and the feeling like youy can’t turn quite as freely into spaces, but not as much as before.
Feels a bit more like just jostling for position when in the middle of a group now, just a few times where you are on the ouside of a group and your turning into empty space feels a bit sluggish, but it def seemed improved (or was i imagining it?)
Apple TV A2169
tvOS 16.6 (20M73)
Zwift 1.45.0 (116914)
Wahoo KICKR Bike v2 (fw 2.0.5), steering connected.
8.8.23 — Zwift - Group Ride: Bikealicious Tuesday Tango (E) on Country to Coastal in Makuri Islands. About 50 riders. Occurred in previous group rides, as well. Really weird to watch amidst the otherwise smooth pack dynamics. Thankfully, crashes aren’t a thing yet or else I’d have taken out half the group tonight!
Let me know if need any additional information. I’ve got a YouTube playlist of a few clips but can’t include in post.
Note 1: Since this was in Makuri, we’re riding on left side of road, so the most recent occurrence of this issue has me moving abruptly to right. In other worlds riding on right side of road, similar issue but moving abruptly to left.
Note 2: I also have Zwift Play controllers and have experienced the same issue, so gave up on using them for now. Basically, steering is altogether unusable.
Note 3: There’s another rider I noticed having similar issues (3 or 4 riders had their steering active based on icons in riders list, but I can’t be sure if they were having issues as well).
Pack dynamics would be normal, until they weren’t for me, this is when my avatar would abruptly move toward the right, then back to what I normally experienced for pack dynamics. This occurs repeatedly and seemingly randomly throughout group rides. I can move my avatar to left and right using steering buttons without issue, otherwise. In some situations, I was on far left side of group and, while I’d normally have expected my avatar to advance slightly given that I was accelerating, I instead moved abruptly across the entire group to point I was riding solo on far right side. In other situations, while riding in middle of pack, my avatar would begin to move abruptly to right but be blocked by another rider. My avatar would seem to keep bumping against the rider while still trying to move farther right.
It seems that the “feature” of the game yanking you to the side of the route while using the Van/Truck powerUp has been sorted which I’m very grateful for.
I have now started to experience my avatar “wandering” left or right since the latest update? It’s a constant re-correct to keep it headed in the draft of a rider in-front. If I’m by myself it stays online.
Steering in and around groups still feels pretty awful at times. I get that in the middle of a pack movement should be limited, but it feels like it still just limits your movement based on whether there are riders anywhere in your vicinity, so slowing you down when you are apparently moving into completely empty space beside the pack. This makes peeling off the front of a TTT line and then slotting back in where needed very hard and much worse than before this change.
The game is constantly autocorrecting your course. Again I get it may want to do this after a certain amount of time, but its happening far too fast.
