One of my favorite memories here in the ZI Pain Cave with my cousin Boone was when I saw him working extra hard for several minutes. Eventually I asked, “Are you trying to stay off the front of your Pace Partner group, or what?”
“No!” he said. “I’m trying to pass this guy!” And he pointed to a rider’s avatar in the middle of his screen.
His avatar. Boone had been chasing himself and, sadly, had made very little progress.
This points to a bit of a UI issue that Zwift hopes to fix with a new feature they’re calling “Player Highlight”. Announced with a raft of other upcoming features last week, it’s a small quality-of-life upgrade that may have some fun spinoff applications in future versions. Let’s dive in!
Player Highlight: How It Works
It “does what it says on the tin”, as my UK friends like to say. Player Highlight encircles a Zwifter’s avatar body with light so they’re easy to spot on screen.
Who will be highlighted? Well, that’s the big question. Zwift says it will highlight your own avatar, avatars of Zwifters you follow, and avatars of ride leaders.
The highlighting is smart, too: it fades as the pack gets smaller, since you don’t need it when there are just a few riders on screen.
Is It Needed?
This update is very needed on Zwift, especially in three specific situations.
First, you’ve got Boone’s situation. If you’re a newer (or glycogen-depleted) Zwifter riding on a busy road, you may be confused about which avatar on screen is yours.
Second, crowded races and group rides can be really confusing. For example, look at this screenshot of a race I did just last week, with over 200 riders:
It’s even worse in events where everyone is placed in the same kit. The recent Tour of Watopia, for example… can you spot my avatar below?
Put a highlight around your avatar, and suddenly it’s very clear who you are:
Third, players with visual impairments can have a hard time picking out their avatar on screen. I personally know visually-impaired Zwifters who wear particular headwear or kits so they can more easily pick themselves out on screen. Simple highlighting will improve the group ride experience for these riders.
Taking It Further
It may be a good idea to let players toggle highlighting on and off. While I think it’s generally a useful feature, players may prefer the more realistic appearance of no highlight.
This highlighting idea opens up a whole conversation related to racing. Highlighting riders I follow is a good start – this would let me easily spot my teammates in a race situation. But what if I could highlight particular riders in a race, literally marking them? What if I could mark my teammates with a green highlight, and mark the key bad guys with a red highlight?
Taking it one step further, what if the closest X highlighted riders ahead and behind stayed visible in the rider bar on the right, so I could always see their stats and distance from me?
Arrival Date
Zwift is saying Player Highlight will arrive “this summer.” My guess is it’ll launch between June and August 2023.
Questions or Comments?
Share below!
The case of theTour of Watopia is a perfect example of why we need this. I tried finding myself during that ride so many times. Did you know the ‘hand wave’ didn’t work on the ToW? Yeah, extra annoying! So glad for this, it would be even better if I woke up tomorrow and this was already implemented.
I don’t think there’s enough hand waving in general.
Do you wave to the fans on the side of the road or are you normal?
LOL, Nope. Only use it to find myself.
Might’ve been because you were on a mountain bike or tricycle perhaps with regard to the waving? No waving animation for those bikes. I think I waved as normal on a road bike during the ToW but could be mistaken, if so apologies!
I don’t fully remember if I was on the MTB or not. It was probably not as when I got to the MTB the crowd was thinned out cause I’m slow.
Will be welcome to see in real time direct opponent for ZRL “Segment Battle Point”
Recognising my own avatar is the primary reason I still use the Neokyo helmet 😉
I use gray socks and fizik shoes (white with black vertical heel stripe) for the same reason. Of course, that only works when I can see my feet! 🤓
I use what I call my “Mom” hat: the backwards facing MAAP hat you can only see MA from the back for this reason too. Don’t see very many of those out there.
hello fello MA Hat wearer
I wear the lederhosen from the pretzelfest rides and the pink cap from the Giro. It’s quite distinctive.
The Neokyo helmet is the best, I rode the whole kit for months at a time. Super easy to see as not too many people use it.
As you mentioned, all I see it’s good for is if you are in a group ride where everyone else is in the same Jersey. Otherwise I have my own specific kit and I can point myself out easily in any other ride.
I think Zwift could put their energy towards something more useful.
Oh, also like another person commented, I don’t think there is enough waving either.
Adding to your racing ideas, could be used for ‘virtual’ leaders of certain categories as well in stage races.
Also, in a mixed field, for women competitors, the other ladies could be highlighted.
Oh… I SOOOOO needed this in the WTRL Glasgow Crit course. I was looking at the wrong avitar, hanging near the back of the fist sprint when “my” avatar began receding into the distance. Oops. That was a teammate. I was off the back, never to catch back on.
I put in a feature request on the forum for this very thing about three years ago. And oddly, asked James from ZHQ about it during his group ride last week just before it was announced! I mean, if they can put little flags with rider names on them and above the beacon (and sweep), why couldn’t they put a blue, for example, triangle above my head. It got even worse with the various oblique camera views where you can’t differentiate between riders at all. And when the kit is all the same, fuggedaboudit. I wear my “Mom” hat most… Read more »
I had the same thought many years ago. They can’t ignore us forever!
https://forums.zwift.com/t/keeping-track-of-friends-in-the-peloton/20620
LOL, I did the same request in 2018. Better late than never I guess: https://forums.zwift.com/t/friends-have-a-beacon-of-light-above-them/13358
It would also be great if in a race the right side panel would group riders instead of listing all of them. That would be more like TV coverage does it and give a better overview of the race. It could name the groups by highlighted riders or just randomly.
This sounds like the most helpful new release so far. I personally will use this all the time in RoboPacer groups and the like.
Just say no to events forcing the same jersey 🙁
I agree but double XP always brings to the start line.
Mark the bad guys with a red highlight. I love where your head is at!
In response to the part in the write up – “But what if I could highlight particular riders in a race, literally marking them? What if I could mark my teammates with a green highlight, and mark the key bad guys with a red highlight?” . This will take away the realistic racing element. There’s no way you can highlight a rider in real life, and that’s what makes it exciting because it enables riders to slip up the road, which is a very important part of racing tactics. By removing that element of surprise it will make the racing to easy… Read more »
If you’ve ever done much racing IRL, you pretty much know who your competition is, and ‘mark’ them by knowing their kit, and other aspects of their appearance. I for one will welcome being able to highlight riders that are my competition, especially in mixed field races (Masters races).
I find it much harder to mark riders on Zwift, vs IRL. Especially in a large group, and extra-especially if it’s a team race and multiple riders are wearing the same kit! (It can become impossible at that point.)
Personally, I think being able to highlight other players would put Zwift racing more on par with IRL when it comes to marking particular riders in the pack.
Uselessness.
I like the idea for marking teammates so you know where your mates are when strategizing during a race. As for marking myself… One problem I have never had – and I get confused easily – is identifying my own avatar. He’s like… right there…
Hey Eric. Have you heard anything about launch date of this feature? Summer is over now, this would be nice to have for races with big crowded fields, like ZRL.
They keep pushing it off… I’m not sure why.
Bummer. Guess it’s not a very high priority which I can understand. Thanks, Eric!
Bummer, would have been great for ToW 😪