PREFACE: The following is written after a couple of rides and a WTRL TTT race with fully-charged, up-to-date firmware (1.1.1 as of July 21, 2023) Zwift Play Controllers paired to an Intel-based MacBook Pro running macOS 11.7.x (Big Sur).
Issues
- Initial Zwift Play Controller connection after Zwift-app launch is an awful experience. The UI does not clearly indicate where the controllers should connect, or how to connect them. The “Steering” selection screen allows you to “check” each controller, but this is not a guarantee of a connection. The Steering tile states “connecting” for quite some time, and often requires several power-cycles to get the controllers connected.
- Game UI does not always indicate where the “selection” mechanism is when pressing arrow keys. This should be remedied by highlighting/outlining in white whenever the arrows are pressed, or maybe making some kind of subtle flashing/strobing effect on the currently selected item.
- Controller inputs in the game menu system seem to be lost, and require re-pressing buttons on occasion. In-game menus are sometimes hard (impossible?) to navigate with the Zwift Play controllers alone, specifically at the end of a WTRL TTT, the leaderboard menu was very difficult to escape.
Wishlist
- Allow/enable use of the USB-C charging ports to “connect” to the game.
- Dedicate a “tile” on the connections screen to Zwift Play controllers.
- Make the “controller cursor/arrow-navigation” location easy to understand at a glance in Game UI / menus.
- Open-up the possibility for custom game-modes / user-submitted maps/content and game server-hosting. Make Zwift mod-able. You clearly don’t have the resources to do everything you want to do, so let the community pitch in.
- The physical steering paddles feel like low-quality plastic. It would be nice to have a more premium-feeling touchpoint. Even if a softer-surface wears faster, make it replaceable/consumable. Maybe you could retrofit slip-on, soft rubbery “condoms” for the existing paddles.
What’s awsome
- I love the tactile buttons. I love not having to fight with touch-screens or track-pads with sweat-drenched hands after a long, exhausting ride.
- The steering is surprisingly useful - much less of a gimmick than I had thought it would be. I was able to help close gaps and keep pull lines straight, both by moving my avatar into the draft, and moving myself in front of other avatars while taking a pull. Very useful in TTT.
- The Repack Ridge mini-game is a wonderful taste of what could be - I hope to see more gamification (single-player and multi-player oriented as well) in the future.
Rex