Viewing More than 100 riders on Zwift

It would be great to see more than 100 riders at a time in events. May seem small & I can imagine would be more demanding on system but figured I’d ask the question to see if it gets an answer. Thanks!!

It’s capped to eliminate issues on low end devices that would really struggle with that much activity.

And in reality i doubt you could physically see that many riders. For example if you didn’t know it was capped at 100 would you be able to tell it was?

it’s only really visibe in bit group rides when the leader looks randomly off the front/back on their own or maybe in huge races.

Can’t say it’s bothered me but it would be nice to have the option their for higher end devices if it’s a case of the device rather than zwift capacity to send data.

You would be able to tell. Can see far in distance on Zwift. 100 riders in a bunch really isn’t that huge. It would just be nice to see further down the road to see any gaps, etc. it would totally be possible to see >100 riders, especially on the minimap.

Better eyes than me then Dru.

I get seeing them on the mini map would be useful.

Or just some sort of feature like sauce provides for groups. That is probably the most useful feature as it shows group sizes and gaps with accurate times unlike zwifts time that can be pretty innacruate.

Time for zwift to update the HUD. would be great if allowed more customisation like other platforms are now delivering.

Yes, that would be interesting for zwift to offer ‘racing’ hud option that was more customizable, similar to sauce.

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I’m not bothered about seeing more than 100 riders but I’d like to be able to see messages from a wider field than when I last Zwifted a few months ago.

In some events it feels like - as people spread out - you see messages from less and less people, which is a shame and makes them feel less sociable (unless they’ve fixed this since I stopped Zwifting for the summer)

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Oh it’s VERY obvious in our group rides.
When we hit 100+ I’m unable to do my sweeps because riders literally aren’t being drawn, and worse, not even listed. If they aren’t visible, they literally don’t exist. Rider list won’t show them, companion won’t show them, etc.

It’s actually quite honestly a major issue in my opinion.

But in our group rides, we have blobs that are quite shallow, probably less than 15m in game, maybe even tighter… pretty unrealistic for sure, but even at that size can easily contain 100+ riders no issue.

Point being, in large group rides, it’s a bigger problem than any time ordinarily otherwise.
Certainly a big enough issue that since we are unable to sweep people because we can’t see them, that it’s a potential ride-ruiner for said people.

Personally I’d really appreciate to have the option to see more riders, being a sweeper day in day out, it’s massively important to know what’s going on behind me; when we hit 100 riders (which is random days through summer, but every ride through “indoor season”), it’s a problem.

That said, I also think it looks silly when with a pace partner and the same happens; where you see a few folks around you, and some riders may pop in going the opposite direction for a second or two, but you know there are thousands of people around you anyways… It just looks strange.
Performance wise… I get it… but better LODs can be made and dealt with.

But we also aren’t on the same hardware Zwift was being created for when they implemented this programming “rule.” The ATV 4K gen1 is now on the chopping block anyways, and to be fair the device is 6 years old… (meaning Apple itself will probably end support for it this year based on their support timeline for other ATV devices)

Apple ended support for their HD lineup ATVs, and Zwift just did as well 2 months ago.
We shouldn’t have to be burdened by those old programming design choices of yesteryear.

We need to see more riders; or at the very least, be given the option to.

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Well said and agree!!

I don’t think they’ve fixed this. I mostly ride in large club rides and I feel like I am missing messages from folks in the chat more often than in the past (the ride leader responds to someone and I can’t see what the someone said). It feels like this is happening because of the number of folks, rather than the distance over which they’ve spread out, since these rides use an active fence. (Once the fence is off, there’s still the thing where you won’t see messages from someone who’s on what Zwift considers to be a different segment than you even though you’re both on the same route, due to them being far enough ahead that they’ve passed a possible turning point and you have not, but I think that is by design, because of the way that the segments are set up.)

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I also find this quite annoying. It damages the social aspect of the ride because half a conversation is worse than none at all.

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Going off topic, but I always find the psychology of one-sided conversations intriguing. Someone talks on their phone in a restaurant and it’s bothersome to others, not because they’re talking, but that the other half of the conversation can’t be heard. 2 people talking back and forth with each other at another table – it’s not an issue.

No, it’s just rude to use your phone at the dinner table.

Same when you are at a checkout and you are on the phone for the entire transaction.

Or you answer the door to a parcel delivery and continue on your phone.

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The issue of limited message visibility and its impact on group rides has been hotly discussed and debated previusly, most recently in early 2021. Many folks (including group ride leaders) advocated for greater visibility.

Eric Min gave this statement: “By design, we keep the messages to the folks around you with the exception of the ride leaders / sweepers (which was fixed recently). Now if the question is whether we plan to open up ALL messages to EVERYONE in the event, this is something we are considering maybe as an option. In very large groups, this can become very noisy though and the reason why we have limited messages to those around you.”

As far as I know, there was no further update on consideration o this option.

See link below for source of above statement. Warning: it’s fairly long and was refers to a general chat bug that has since been fixed.

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For me, I don’t necessarily care about chat from people that are ‘out of radius’. More concerned with >100 riders being visible in event.

Personally; I am totally cool with radius communication in “free roam” mode.

Group rides however… WE (everyone, not just yellow beacon), should be able to communicate with all people at all times.
What’s the point of group rides if not everyone can even be part of the social aspect? It seems silly to me.

The social aspect is what makes Zwift what it is, and why the competitors… are where they are.
I know people that will do significantly slower rides just to hang out and chat with certain folks; and sometimes we end up with people that absolutely can’t keep up, but also seem to want to be there for the social interaction.
I know it is slightly off topic, but I agree that it too is equally as important.

Also worth noting that this can be confusing to yellow beacons as well; I don’t think everyone that is and or has been a yellow beacon understand that they are the only person that can see all communication…
It has made for some interesting situations during some of the group rides I’ve done for sure.

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I was contemplating this again today, and I think there are social rides with a leader where I always want to see full chat, so I can groan at bad jokes when I’m riding with someone 10 minutes off the back, and there are leaderless group rides like Tour of Watopia where limiting the chat radius makes sense.

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on this note, it would be nice if we could send direct messages ingame instead of needing the companion app. i never use the app so i have to respond to DMs with public messages