I started Zwift today and transferred from NY to Watopia and chose Road to Ruins. Everything seemed ok at the start (at about 13:30 EST). After about 2 minutes everyone disappeared except for riders in orange jerseys. There were quite a lot of them (Tour de Zwift riders?) Strange enough, but these riders had no names or flags just the usual numbers that show up on the Zwifters nearby list on the right. Also there were no names or flags in the bubbles above their heads only black. At about 13:50 people reappeared and the rest of the ride was normal except for the occasional orange jersey rider with the black bubble.
I am wondering if anyone around the same time experienced this.
Harry
No incidents have been reported: https://status.zwift.com/
This sounds like a connection issue on your end or with your ISP.
Thanks for the reply. Can you tell me how issues with my ISP would selectively show only certain riders (orange jersey ones) and not others? I could understand if all the riders disappeared (that has occasionally happened) but not this. I will monitor to see if it happens again.
Harry
When i started my free ride in Watopia at 4.30p.m. the Volcano Circuit was listed with 3.3km, unfortunately i forgot to take a screenshot
Because the ping times or speed drop causing late packets or packets not arriving at all. I have not seen others report this issue today on a wide scale so I don’t believe it is on Zwift’s end.
Now that Watopia is always used there are definitely strange things that happen on a daily basis. It’s not a quality of internet connection thing as far as I can tell, for sure though if you are sitting right beside a Zwift server at 1ms, I’m sure the experience is better.
I run a VPN from Canada to New York at 12ms response time. New York server puts me close to Zwift servers I think. I’d love to hear the disclosure from Zwift on where the Zwift servers are located for even better response time.
That said, today in a group ride in Watopia with non-event riders not shown, I saw a rider cruising in the wrong direction in the run lane on my side of the road, another rider going diagonally through the road and continuing on down the greenery. All good, I find those things amusing.
The only time I see a dropout in riders on screen is when I pass through junction points. At the same time I’ll get the only me in the nearby riders box. So it seems when passing the junction points the Zwift servers have a hard time processing all the data from everyone on road. The numerous entries when passing through junction points in the log file support that theory.
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Would I be able to see this effect using another program from the internet, say something on YouTube? What would I look for if I notice this effect again on Zwift?
Thanks for taking the time to explain.
Youtube has a server base a slight better than Zwift. 
If you ever see anything like the following in your logfile you know the Zwift servers are working hard.
[13:06:51] NETWORK:Delayed packet detected: Delay=6.78, Meters=150.4 networkID=555939, rider name=T
[13:06:51] NETWORK:Delayed packet detected: Delay=6.81, Meters=150.6 networkID=416986, rider name=S
[13:06:51] FPS 60, -60856, 9328, 52527
[13:06:52] NETWORK:Delayed packet detected: Delay=109.40, Meters=82.4 networkID=180652, rider name=R
[13:06:52] Donuting: otherBike->m_pos and bike->m_pos are almost identical, lenSq: 0.5745087
[13:06:52] Donuting: otherBike->m_pos and bike->m_pos are almost identical, lenSq: 0.4798517
[13:06:52] Donuting: otherBike->m_pos and bike->m_pos are almost identical, lenSq: 0.2256250
[13:06:52] NETWORK:Delayed packet detected: Delay=11.98, Meters=146.6 networkID=183788, rider name=D
[13:06:52] NETWORK:Delayed packet detected: Delay=12.00, Meters=149.2 networkID=466424, rider name=P
[13:06:52] NETWORK:Delayed packet detected: Delay=11.99, Meters=150.3 networkID=385850, rider name=J
[13:06:52] NETWORK:Delayed packet detected: Delay=10.13, Meters=155.2 networkID=461352, rider name=J
The issue is with the mass of devices Zwift supports.
Can you think of any other MMO game that offers a MMO experience on as many platforms and with as many input devices as Zwift? I can’t. What Zwift has done to date is revolutionary even in 2019.
Do we all suffer a little because someone somewhere is using an old phone on wifi to run their Zwift? Yes, but I’d prefer to have that rider online so I can draft them. Could the Zwift server do a better job at massaging those users with laggy connections, absolutely.
Ride On!
There is no need for disclosure if you are on a PC running Zwift. Open Task Manager, use the link to open Resource Monitor Leave Resource Monitor open to the network tab and open Zwift and ride. Watch the traffic for ZwiftApp.exe. You can see the IP of all the servers, and their latency as they communicate with your PC. Take a screen shot and do a little internet searching after your ride on the IP addresses and you can find them pretty easy.
For sure I could that, but every other MMO out there publishes these facts for good reason.
It would in fact benefit Zwift to do this because then more people will get closer to their servers and the issue of mass latency that effects all would reduce.
I had a similar experience whilst in the NY world today, around 21:30 GMT. Just orange riders, no names. When I finished my 23mile 1h 15m ride only part of it seems to have been saved. My activity today registered only a 12 mile 40m ride!
Harold you are not alone, I had the same issue. See my reply to you main post.
The exact same thing has happened to me twice this month.
Both times, all riders around me are wearing Tour de Zwift orange jerseys and no names or flags in nearby riders.
Also on the two occasions, only half the ride has saved and has not auto saved to Strava after saving.
Hi Scott
What you describe sound like a network issue.
Put the log file of the effected ride in zwiftalizer.com and look at your network usage.
Thanks Gerry,
I’ll take a look at that and let you know what I find.
Oops sorry,
Meant Gerrie … not Gerry!! 
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Its a long standing visual only bug, riders are still there. Effects the Bridge and the Volcano climb.
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