Hey Zwifters!
Today’s update is a pretty big one packed with lots of performance enhancements and cool new features!
The first one you’ll run into is the new** Pairing Screen**:
Zwift now allows you to pair a Smart Trainer and a Power Meter at the same time. This means Zwift can control your smart trainer’s resistance while using your power meter’s power numbers. Pretty cool.
You can pair them in either order - power meter first and then smart trainer or smart trainer first and then power meter. If you pair your smart trainer first, it will set both the ‘Power Meter’ and ‘Smart Trainer’ fields. Simply click on ‘Unpair’ power meter to then search and select your power meter.
Next is the new ‘Settings’ screen accessible by clicking the ‘Settings’ icon on the ‘Pause’ screen:
*screenshot from Mac
We’ve added a few much sought after requests including the ability to separately control in-game sounds (menu and notifications) as well as the 3D world volume (environmental sounds). You can also adjust your Game Resolution (this may impact performance).
For those of you using a Basic Setup (speed sensor and classic trainer), you can choose between Virtual Power Modes for supported trainers. Classic Mode may reduce the jumpiness of the wattage display experienced using zPower but it also reduces responsiveness during sprints as it does not account for acceleration. The zPower option is currently only available for Kurt Kinetic trainers, the CycleOps Fluid 2 and the JetBlack Z1.
If you have a Premium Setup with a Smart Trainer, we’ve added a Trainer Difficulty setting:
*screenshot from Mac
Trainer Difficultly allows you to scale the feel of the climbs from 0 to 100%. No, this won’t make you any faster or slower. It still takes the same amount of power (watts) to move your avatar through Watopia. By default, Zwift treats the gradient as half of the true grade.
Additionally,** Zwift now supports Full Screen. **Bring it! If you’re on a PC, the option to make Zwift full screen will appear above User Interface in the ‘Settings’ menu (requires a restart to take effect).
If you’re on a Mac with Yosemite (10.10), click on the full screen icon in the upper left-hand corner of your window (no restart required):
Older versions of OSX will have the full screen icon in the upper right-hand corner of your window (no restart required):
We’ve made a host of performance optimizations including improved load times , added retina support (Nice!) and menu scrolling is now fully supported.
And we’ve added the next batch of the most popular flags (there’s a technical reason we’re monitoring why we can’t add them all it once so please bear with us):
- China
- Hong Kong
- Taiwan
- Thailand
- Singapore
- Poland
- Mexico
Last, but not least (drumroll please), you might notice a big, new blue button on the bottom of the Zwift Mobile Link dashboard next time you ride. It looks like it points backwards…Yep, we’ve added** U-turns**! Press and hold this button (just like the ‘Stop’ button) and give it spin! Now you can ride Watopia in **either direction** you choose and Wave to oncoming riders.
When you press and hold the U-turn button, you will slow down to 15mph (~21kph) before making the turn. You cannot make a U-turn under 3mph (~5 kph) and a U-turn may be delayed if there are riders trying to pass you.
You can also hit the ’ Down Arrow’ on your Keyboard to initiate the U-turn if you do not have the Zwift Mobile Link app.
Any jerseys you’ve earned in your current direction of travel will disappear from your avatar when you U-turn. Icons for those jerseys will appear next to your name on the riders list indicating that you hold them in the opposite direction ( each direction has separate leaderboards ). Of course, all standard rules apply so if someone bests your time in that direction, the icons will disappear. If you still hold them when you change direction again, they will magically reappear on your avatar.
We know what you’re thinking. Yes, it IS possible to hold up to 6 jerseys now in one session - 3 for each direction. Hammer time!
And no, it’s not possible to repeatedly circle through arches to get new PowerUps. We’ve implemented a cooldown timer on them.
Speaking of leaderboards, there is one last in-game addition to the sprint point stopwatch. We’ve added " Today’s PR" that shows your personal best time from the current ride.
Whew! That about covers it. I’m toast!
As always, we look forward to reading your comments, suggestions, and feedback in our Zwift Support Community.
Ride on!
Team Zwift