The latest Zwift update has been announced and is being released on a per-OS basis. It includes a minor set of new features, but the real excitement is all the behind-the-scenes code updates that open up new feature possibilities in the coming months.
Let’s dig into the details…
Staggered Release, New Possibilities
For the first time that we can remember, Zwift is releasing this update in a “staggered” fashion on a per-OS basis. Shuji in the Zwift forums said “It’s going out to some PC users first, then other platforms will follow.”
Why the staggered release? Here’s what Zwift says:
Zwift has been working on a number of back-end improvements that will open new possibilities for the next evolution of the Zwift game experience. Version 1.34.0 sees much of the code written over the past 9 months added to the public client for the first time.
Due to the scale of this change, the game release will be staggered to minimize the risk of disruption. We will unveil more details on our future plans later in the year.
We love the sound of “new possibilities for the next evolution of the Zwift game experience”! What is Zwift referring to exactly? Watch this space, because Zwift says they’ll be sharing some of what’s coming soon in a media release next week. We’ll write all about it as soon as possible.
Pack Dynamics 4
Zwift has been working on updating pack dynamics since October 2022 or thereabouts. (It’s come a long way since we caused a bit of a mess using it for Tiny Races back in October.) The goals of PD4 are:
- Reduce pack speed somewhat for large packs
- Make it less punishing if you’re dropped/easier to bridge back up
- Make breakaways have a slightly better chance of sticking if the attackers work well together
- Reduce the number of bunch sprint finishes in races
- Reduce churn and rider movement in large packs
PD4 has been activated for Zwift Insider Tiny Races since early March, and we’re hearing good reviews. Riders seem to agree that it’s not a very noticeable change – which is probably a good thing.
UPDATE: PD4 is now activated across all Zwift worlds – see this forum post for details.
XP Display Tweaks
Zwift says, “Zwifters with banked XP will now see their rider score match their level progress graph position.”
Before this update, riders above level 50 who had banked XP saw a bit of weirdness in the rider score/graph on the game’s pause window. This update cleans it up.
Additionally, riders at level 60 previously weren’t seeing their additional XP on this screen – their rider score simply displayed 750,000, which is the XP needed to hit level 60.
Now the screen displays your actual rider score, although it doesn’t chart your level on the graph, since there are no levels above 60 in Zwift. Yet.
Additionally – for runners – “Rider Score” is now shown as “Runner Score”. It’s the little things.
Auto TT Swap
We’ve all been there… you drop into a RoboPacer ride, only to realize you’re on the TT frame you used in yesterday’s race or workout. This simple new feature alerts you if you’re on a TT frame, and lets you click a button to be placed on Zwift’s default Carbon frame instead.
The Carbon frame isn’t the fastest road frame in Zwift, of course. But it’s much faster than a TT frame in a pack, since it receives the draft benefit. This is a simple solution to a minor but annoying “quality of life” issue. (Word is Zwift co-founder, TT lover, and game creator Jon Mayfield whipped this one up himself!)
Note: this feature is “feature-flagged”, which means it’s included in this release’s code, but Zwift has to flip the switch on the server side to activate it for everyone. It’s not yet enabled for all Zwifters.
More Fixes and Tweaks
A few more fixes were noted in this release:
- Fixed an issue that would sometimes cause HoloReplays to fly while on the Alpe.
- Fixed an issue that would cause the start time for Time Trial events to appear incorrectly.
- Replaced the Time Trial HUD element with the standard race HUD element for all routes while in a Time Trial event.
- Fixed an issue that would sometimes cause duplicate race results to be saved when completing a race.
- Screenshots taken from the action bar will now save as expected (Android/iOS)
See notes on this update release in the Zwift forum >
Questions or Comments?
If you spotted any other changes or bugs in the update, please comment below!
I liked the time trial HUD for Bologna and Tempus Fugit – the only 2 routes it worked on because it helped me pace myself (especially on Bologna). Looks like that might be going away, which would be a shame but I get that, now that they have a lot more routes to do TT’s on, they can’t make that detailed display for all of them (and doing a TT on Tick Tock where you partially got the Tempus Fugit display was annoying).
Excited to see what else they have planned.
Agree that i like TT HUD in time trial races. Will missed it.
An option to choose your HUD would be far better. And the ability to customise your HUD would be utopia.
We’ve only been requesting that for 5+years…!
Your life must have been a living hell during that time.
My ANT+ connection doesn’t work anymore. The first guess is always that it’s a local issue, but given that the last update also caused this problem, and the fact that apart from the issues stemming from the last update, ANT+ has been working flawlessly for six years, I suspect Zwift. Is anyone else having issues?
Strangely, all my Bluetooth connections stopped working after the update (Mac OS). Nothing seems to get the pairing screen to recognize my HRM or Elite Suito.
no mine works fine
Same issue for me too…
I’m seeing intermittent ANT+ and Bluetooth drop outs too. Is there anyplace to report and track bugs ?
We need a pee break mode when riding with a robotpacer where the avatar is going to keep freeriding in the pack for XX amount of seconds.
Would be so helpful sometimes 😂
That sounds awesome. Up until the TT-bike feature, that would also have been great for swapping bikes when you realized you were on the wrong bike (or realized shortly after getting on the bike that you’d forgotten your towel or water bottle or whatever).
That feature is actually coming, it’s going to allow you to take a break of up to 3 minutes, where you will do 0 watts but your avatar will stay with the pack you were with. Obviously this won’t be active in races! 😁 Still a really good little addition when it goes live I reckon.
Yep, that was my idea. But I got kicked out of Zwift Forums for opening my mouth about it. My bad.
that really would be handy!
For the auto TT switch, I’d like it to be able to switch to the last non-TT bike you rode.
I’d prefer the Pee Break feature mentioned above which would allow you to account for being on a gravel bike/MTB too.
Just show the current bike in the main screen so you are reminded before selecting a ride seems like the sensible way I would think…
Maybe I missed it. Does this fix the issue where your garage shows new items, when there are no new items?
A prompt to choose your bike at the start of every event (just before loading into a world) would seem a logical addition.
“game release will be staggered” – shades of the new Home Screen release?
My ant+ connection is no longer working, exactly like last time (previous update). This is SO annoying…
I am going to ask the same question for every Zwift update: When will they provide a useful or usable elevation profile in game? It’s the single most important metric affecting speed in game beyond power, and the existing profile is absolutely worthless.
I’ve thought this from the moment I joined!! I switched over from Rouvy which has a large, easily visible course profile along the bottom of the screen. To have to effectively memorize courses to know exactly when climbs are coming up is ridiculous. And the fact that the Zwift one sometimes goes left to right and sometimes right to left just boggles my mind. It’s awful!!
just swapping the elevation and power/heart rate profile would be a good start
Right??? It makes me crazy because it would be (a) incredibly easy to add — they already have the data, and the graphic requirements are minimal, and (b) it’s incredibly important, and not having that data makes racing actively worse, almost bad enough to make me quit using Zwift.
It certainly is the worst feature…but could be so useful if implemented in a readable way. Far to small and needs to be in a consistent direction. Please fix it….
Will the option to switch from a TT bike also work in group rides?
I don’t think so – it’s just for RoboPacer drop-ins.
I’ll be unsurprised but still quite angry if this doesn’t finally include them releasing the Rowing element publicly!
Eric, is there any auto-braking in the PD4-release ? perhaps in corners in downhill sections ?
And what do they mean in the forum with “flashing red wattage numbers when you are slow downed from the system” ? … and in which situations this can happen ?
No autobraking on corners. But yes in packs. Post about coming out tomorrow at noon UTC.
many thanks like always 🙋🏻♂️
There *will* be braking in corners, according to the PD4 forum thread, *but* it is completely separate from the PD4 work – it only came up in that thread as someone asked the same thing. The Zwift dev said corner speed braking was still a work in progress, and would show up separately from PD4 / later
Many thanks for the hint Mike 🙋🏻♂️ … then I think we will see the corner braking feature when we can do the first downhill races from the start pens atop AdZ or Ven-Top
Rowing is finally coming.
Ha ha. Good one. A few days too late for April Fools.
Sounds cool! Any thoughts on which of the ToW courses on today would be the best to feel out the effects of the new PD?
They all have the Fuego Flats, which would be good to test pack speeds and breakaways. I’d say just go with whichever route has the distance you want!
Just did S&S and the difference was quite noticeable! I like it!
Hope they fix bug on android where certain GPX points at 0% gradients give no resistance. Found consistency at Tempus Fugit turnaround, like I’m riding on rollers, the minute the road then goes up or down resistance comes back.Tricky in a race when trying to hold a wheel, spinning like Chris Hoy. Acknowledged but not fixed yet
Anyone know anything about the Volt/Hub broadcasting in 10HZ like the Kickr Race Mode? I see Jet Black released firmware with 10HZ
I just know what you know – that the Volt now has firmware that lets it broadcast at 10Hz.
There was some mention in the PD4 thread that this version will *also* fix rubber-banding on PCs (the display camera bug issue, not “keep group together” rubber-banding you can set on meetups and events)
But it’s a staggered release and I don’t have 1.34 yet. Has anyone that had issues with rubber-banding got 1.34 update yet and seen if it fixed it?
I sure hope this gets fixed. It’s been especially bad in Tour of Watopia when we get put in the dinosaur or monster suits.
I’m still waiting on 1.34 to roll out to me on my main rig so I *still* don’t know if that was just a rumor (even if sourced from a zwift dev!) or whether it is the real deal. Would love to hear from anyone that has 1.34 and suffered/suffers from rubberbanding to see if it’s fixed
Still waiting and hoping as well. I hadn’t had it until recently when I got tired of my old GPU giving me low frame rates in the new worlds and upgraded to a new(er) GPU.
Has video recording for Windows been released? I don’t seem to have it.
Not yet.
Since today no connection to hrm, tried wahoo, polar and broadcast from garmin watch. No racing for now.
And would like to run on zwift again, broke my foot pod and can’t find a replacement in Canadasince end if last year. Any ideas?
Are there going to be any new challenges added?
I haven’t got the update yet, but what happens if I am in a race with people who have got it? Will we be on different game dynamics?
I was referring to the PD4 changes!
PD4 is server side. I believe that HQ has turned it on for all rides. 1.34 not needed.
Thanks Ray 🙂
Enjoying Zwift a lot. Wondering if there is any more information on bringing a recumbent trike avatar for us recumbent trike riders? I feel it would be advantageous to let other cyclists see us recumbent trikes as we appear IRL rather than just seeing it by our names on the rider board. Just my thoughts. Ride On!
Hi Eric, do you know when they are going to fix the missing workout tab in a meet up? It’s not been working for at least a few months.
I’m not even sure what you’re referring to, Lisa! Can you explain in more detail?
In the companion app, when you are in a meet up and doing a structured workout with your meet up buddies, the workout ‘tab’ used to be available in companion that shows the sets and your progress, and had the buttons to change FTP bias, etc. It no longer shows up since one of the updates a few months ago. However, when you do a workout solo, the tab still appears. It is a glitch that seems to only occur during meet ups.
Ever since I updated to 1.34 none of my rides have shown any Zwifted With people. Anyone else? Peter J
Wattbike gearing on Apple TV seems to have disappeared since this update. Has anyone else experienced this?
Not just on Apple. Gear display gone from the Windows version too
It is possible for this update to load in the background? Ever since you’ve made this post, I’ve been anxiously waiting for that “updating” notification to happen (especially when I’m running late for a group ride or race – getting up at 4 am for the 5am start of last weekend’s Herd Omnium races was brutal and I was terrified it was going to be for naught with a slow/crashing update keeping me out of the pen – fortunately that didn’t happen). Earlier this week, I happened to notice the version number on the loading window and it said 1.34.
I haven’t seen the Updating progress bar any time that I’ve booted Zwift though. I suppose, if it was fast, I might have missed it while grabbing the Chamois Butt’r or putting my jersey on.
Depends on what device you run Zwift on. Background updates are pretty normal for AppleTV, for example. But you might have just missed it on the PC, too…
I just updated to Zwift version 1.34.0 and I no longer see the option to create a new custom workout. I’m on iOS 16.3.1 iPad 9th gen. I use my custom workouts almost 100% of the time so this is bad news :/