Figured it out. I’ll give it a try tomorrow. It’s refreshing to not have any connection problems with my kicker, unlike zwift, which is finicky as hell.
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Vice, I actually think Zwift does, from a business perspective, know exactly what they want to do, they are doing it well, and users like it. But, the last two weeks I’ve spent more time trying to get Zwift to work on machines it ran just fine on prior to the last update than I have spent riding in Zwift. When the software gets in the way of the business the users have a legitimate reason to complain whether they spend $15 a month or $1500 a month.
For me I’ve sent in two requests to their customer support in the last 2 weeks and I got the quick confirmation email back from them but since then complete crickets. My time is limited. I don’t want to have to do IT work before I can ride that event I signed up for… Zwift needs to suck it up and do what it takes to be stable.
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Greg, No disagreement from me there. I believe that when you pay your monthly dues you are paying for the service to be available to you all the time. That means that unplanned downtime is unacceptable. That also includes downtime due to updating issues even if they occur due to the user’s machine.
All the other gripes or entitlements usually displayed on this forum just don’t sit well with me.
But downtime is the 1 issue that is unacceptable and not up for discussion.
Dan, this is your GPU compared with my GTX 1650:
GTX 1650 is a low end gaming card and Radeon GPUs are known for handling Zwift not very welll (the problem seems to be Zwift is using Open GL). Streaming videos and Zwift are not comparable, I think the GPU is causing the problems.
There can be another bottleneck - the CPU (Zwift is using just one core), but I am not the expert here.
But it is not only Zwift, each software needs at some point more powerful hardware. And yes, very often is the reason the mess in the code. Try to use any CAD/CAM software on a 5-6 years old workstation - I am almost 40 years in this business… I am lucky enough to have no issues (only user errors), that’s why I am happy with Zwift.
Zwift HQ and support are another themes
Yes, I understand.you - Zwift support is not OK. In my (old school) opinion is it a common problem today, not only Zwift. But we could discuss it for hours here - waiting in a phone queue for hours, getting no answer to e-mails, … I experienced so much in the last time, that contacting support is the last option for me (last try was a problem with Strava - no answer after 9 month!).
Ride on!
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People have said very similar things about Strava: that they ignore their user base and would be overwhelmed by more agile competition.
However, when you have an entrenched user base, it’s hard for competition to bootstrap itself ahead of you. Because in the end, why do I ride Zwift instead of RGT or something else? Because of the community here.
That said, I was fairly appalled at how a recent release caused a bug to appear in the route files for Four Horsemen and UberPretzel, causing users to invariably lose the course (and the chance to get a route badge) at the Radio Tower, and it took a month for Zwift to fix this. During this time many hundreds of users rode these extremely challenging routes without receiving credit, and Zwift took no action to retroactively provide that credit. It just to me showed a callousness in what seems should have been a red-alarm emergency.
I like playing the game, for sure. But there’s clear scaling issues @ Zwift central.
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Rode Rouvy for the first time today, and I’m here to tell you, boys and girls, it is light years ahead of Zwift.
- No problems connecting sensors.
- Resistance control is realistic, which it absolutely is NOT on Zwift.
- Power readings and road speed are realistic, which are not on Z.
Software is easy to use. Zwift is a nightmare, on a good day.
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Zwift is basically coasting 
on network effects like Facebook. People ride on Zwift because that’s where other riders are, not necessarily because it’s the best platform. No one’s going to other platforms because there are fewer riders there. And something stinks in their engineering department because there aren’t a constant flow of features being added/tested, and unrelated features have new bugs.
That being said, it does feel like many Zwift users would be happier elseware, especially those who seem to have no interest riding with others.
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They should probably be on GT Bike V. Seriously. One off cost (less than the price of one month’s subscription), graphics and immersion way in advance of Zwift on equivalent PC hardware, core features and advancements being actively developed by the community and obviously comes complete with one of the greatest games of all time sat waiting there to be played.
What I saw on GPLama with GTBike, it’s very funny but very buggy.
And it wouldn’t work with my old PC 
Tested RGT this summer.
It’s a joke compared to Zwift.
I think a lot of the early issues were related to the waypoint system in user-created routes (imagine that!).
See top comment. 
Video minute 5-10
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Well you’ve changed the video, so that’s not fair. 
The problem for us is that zwift just isn’t really big enough for the big players to give it a go. The user base is far too niche and small for a real big competitor to enter the market. That means for us, only start ups would give it a try. It’s taken zwift all this time to develop a platform on a creaking engine that is now releasing more and more bugs with every update. So for the foreseeable future we are stuck with it and zwift know that. They do take their user base for granted… Because they can. Where else do we go? I long for the day when there is a better option and the way that zwift treats their loyal customers comes back to bite then.
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Do you really believe “The user base is far too niche and small…”?
There are 3 millions accounts. Some of them not active, sure.
You need a good sense of humor for GTA Bike. On my second ride, I got run over by a car and fell off a bridge.
But the environments are an example of what you can do with an unlimited budget…
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My son plays rainbow 6… Well over 100 million. Fortnite who knows how many millions. Yes, 3 million is tiny for the cost to develop a standout product. So as I say, only attractive to small start ups which is why none else is really doing it and to be fair to zwift, for the budget they have they have got a product about as good as we can get. It’s why no serious developer wants to work there as it’s a niche product and won’t help their careers.
“Just isn’t big enough …”
Raised $400M in VC funding. That would be ‘attracting players.’ I’m a former VC-funded company exec. That’s money that’s targeting market expansion and growth, NOT the size of an investment to simply acquire positive cashflow.
Also: The person above who wrote about Rouvy being miles ahead summed it up perfectly.
- MUCH more realistic resistance/physics simulation. MUCH more.
- Routes are fantastic.
- Software actually works.
Not to be unkind, but the rides are harder than Zwift, and so that part of the Zwift user group who like to feel that they are this close to being signed to a UCI team will probably find it discouraging and reject it. (Wait 'til they get outside, LOLOLOLOL).
Of course the reality is the established user-base - and I will absolutely credit Zwift with terrific game design. The execution and programming has been poor, as has customer service. I’m more forgiving of the former - the absolutely poop-show of non-communication and tone-deafness of Zwift on the latter is what makes it possible for a competitor to ultimately come along and usurp them.
At one point MySpace had huge user growth and an established base. So did AOL in 1996. Things change.
Try Rouvy, people.
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Robert_Hunt1 - Rouvy does recognize my ANT+ sensor. (Which is generic, cheap and was not stable within Zwift). I run my KICKR CORE through BLE and the HR monitor through ANT+.
Nothing against either Zwift or Rouvy, but I had to remind myself to re-do the connections. (e.g., I had my HR monitor BLE’d to my phone, etc.).
And I sure don’t work for Rouvy, but one thing that sort of blew me away as a frustrated Zwift user was that the connections were quick and more stable - and worked right away. Be sure to disconnect any sensor that you want recognized by ANT+ from your PC’s recognized BLE devices.
Yes, it controls resistance. It also has scalable settings for that (I am not climbing the Stelvio at 100% gravity while I recover from a seizure and COVID, thanks).
In other words, it has the same type of controls as Zwift.