It’s not much more difficult to disable the route-based elevation graph once you have left the selected route, would personally be fine with that (presumably one has a bit more familiarity with the world before one does something like that, and with completely unfamiliarizable worlds like Neokyo I wouldn’t even try)…
A bit more advanced would be to show the road to the next intersection (that’s what happens already currently for the transverse connectors in NYC for instance), or then plot a route further ahead based on the default turns at each intersection.
For anyone unfamiliar with it, this is what it looks like on RGT now, whole route at the bottom and something like 200 m before and after current position in the top right corner:
I don’t think it would be a problem free riding as every bit of road is on at least one route, it just needs to change from being x% through route a to y% along route b - ideally the route you default onto after making a manual turn should be the shortest / lowest elevation option using that stretch of road so if you see something horrific pop up, you can reconsider your choices…
I think most of this could be addressed by improving the contrast. i.e. having it in “Zwift blue”, although the detail would still be compressed for longer routes. A sliding window of the next 40km (or whatever) could potentially address that.
Regarding contrast and being able to see UI elements, Zwift has a fair bit of improvement to do there. I’m sure you’re plugging away at trying to get these addressed internally if you’re personally affected, but the most pressing ones that I struggle with are the D pacers distance behind, and the “time left to make a decision” on turn signals (the contrast between the orange and grey is poor, so I can’t tell how far through the sweep it is).
Up to a point, yes. Obviously, Zwift has no idea how long you intend to ride for, so it couldn’t plot the complete route. But even when free riding, there are always default turns; the engine could plot an elevation for the next 20km window assuming you accept the defaults. If you deviate from the defaults, it could recalculate the profile.
I think currently segments are used but the route profile can only show one direction so depending form what side you enter the segment will determine scrolling left to right or right. So step one should be to make them clever so they know which direction you are going.
I do like the idea then if you select a turn it will update the graph based on your selection before you reach the intersection then you can look at the options and decide what you want to do.
My eyesight is really bad and I don’t think changing the contrast would be enough for me. Having it as a replacement of the power chart along the bottom of the screen would work better for me, but I also like seeing my power chart
Should be in the HUD. Put an elevation progress bar in the white space above the distance bar that functions the same as distance. Then leave the elevation profile as-is on the mini-map or maybe tweak the Y axis to help it stand out just a bit more.
And do we need such a prominent experience bar? Experience bar, level, and drops could all be on the same line.
Elevation for freeride would be the same as whatever it is for distance. Kind of irrelevant by definition as it’s a freeride. That said, I don’t freeride - only races and training.
If there’s one thing riding with Sauce has taught me… it’s that the Zwift HUD needs an urgent ground up redesign. Fortunately thanks to Sauce and no-hud mode, I don’t have to look at it anymore, and proper route gradient support is very close.
