Zwift version 1.69 begins its phased rollout today. This update includes a major change to the pairing screen’s behavior, fresh pack dynamics, steering tweaks, and… a white Tron!
Get all the details below…
Auto-Steering Changes
UPDATE July 16, 2024: Zwift has rolled back the auto-steering change that enabled auto-steering once there was no steering input for 10 seconds.
Zwift’s update notes say, “Optimized automatic steering when riding in groups to take better advantage of the draft.” This update actually includes multiple changes to the game’s pack dynamics.
These changes will be rolling out to Zwifters in the coming days as Zwift enables them on the server side, but the changes will not be in effect for races. Our sources tell us Zwift wants to see what the community thinks of the changes first.
Here’s a quick video showing some of the changes, as well as the pairing screen change explained below:
Pairing Screen Changes
The update notes say, “In case you forgot to pair a device before starting an activity, you can now open the Pairing screen and maintain your speed as long as you continue to pedal.” We say, hurray!
No longer will entering the pairing screen stop your avatar. This means if you need to pair a different heart rate monitor or other device in the middle of your race, it’s not a race-ending move. Your avatar will keep moving, unless you’re pairing a new power source.
If you are putting out less than 20 watts while in the pairing screen, your avatar will quickly brake to stop as before. So if you want to stop, just stop pedaling and enter the pairing screen. Or, get a set of Play Controllers and use the brakes!
Force Field Visuals
If you have steering enabled and you steer into the boundary of a lane or into another rider, a small red force field now shows, indicating that your rider is being stopped from moving the way you are steering.
Homescreen Revamp
This change actually rolled out via server-side updates over the past two weeks, but we wanted to include it here since any major homescreen changes are newsworthy.
Zwift has added a new “hero” slot at the top of the homescreen. It’s currently being used for the TdF Climb Portal Challenge, and what we like most is that it shows how many Zwifters have signed up for the challenge! This is a feature we haven’t seen before on Zwift’s challenges/missions, and we think that bit of “social proof” is very powerful. Zwift could use it in other ways, such as showing which workouts are most popular.
There’s also a new “challenges” row showing challenges you can currently join. This includes short-term challenges, but also shows the three ongoing challenges (Climb Mt. Everest, Ride California, and Tour Italy) if you are a new Zwifter.
“Ride In Style” Paint Schemes
A fresh Easter egg from Zwift! Just for Zwift Ride owners, there’s now a white-framed paint scheme automatically unlocked for the Zwift Carbon, Aero, TT, and Concept (Tron) bikes.
(You’ll have to earn the Tron bike before you can use the custom paint scheme, of course.)
More Release Notes
Zwift provided notes on additional tweaks and bug fixes in this update:
- Updated the estimated completion times and difficulties shown in the Home screen for the Watopia routes Coastal Crown Loop, Glyph Heights, and Mayan Mash.
- In the FTP Tests section of Zwift Workouts, the ZADA Power Test is replaced by the Elite Racing Verification Test.
- Fixed an issue that could cause riders to swerve when taking the Epic KOM bypass in Watopia.
- Fixed an issue where intersection controls were incorrectly visible during some events.
- Fixed an issue that could potentially cause the Coastal Crown Loop route in Watopia to appear incomplete after completing it.
- Fixed an issue that could cause the Neokyo All-Nighter route in Makuri Islands to not be completed if scheduled for multiple laps in an event.
- Fixed an issue that could incorrectly award the KOM jersey for The Grade KOM.
- Fixed an issue where bike wheel shadows could appear to be cut off when riding on the Coastal Crown Loop route in Watopia.
- The “Overall Progress” text in Climb Portal is now translated for all supported languages.
- Windows:
- Fixed a potential crash that could occur when starting Zwift.
- If an unsupported version of OpenGL is detected, a helpful message will be shown with a link to the related Zwift support article.
Discuss this release on Zwift’s forum >
Questions or Comments?
If you spotted any other changes or bugs in the update, please comment below!
Have they fixed the bug where you get stuck on the roundabout at the bottom of the Grade – if you complete Oh Hell No and then don’t want to go up again and do a U Turn, you get stuck in a roundabout loop with no way off.
That’s not a bug, that’s Merry go round heaven!
@Eric Schlange is drafting or cda also changed or only collision?
Just collision as far as I know. But I’ll need to wait for it to roll out fully before I can test it with multiple bots.
I also keep seeing leaderboard being labelled as climb portals (as in it shows a climb portals leaderboard with 30s completions, being a sprint segment)
I reported that bug a few months ago. Sent zwift a video. I declined to go through the hoops of reinstalling zwift so that first level support would take me seriously. The issue never went anywhere after that.
Anyone else noticed the two draft lines one for people with steering and one for people without. This really causes issues in ladder races.
Yes, it seems like steering opens up an extra lane on each side of the road that non-steering riders can’t ever get to. Maybe related to the small pack size in ladder races as in a big packs it doesn’t seem to be an issue.
Hopefully this is fixed with the “Optimized automatic steering when riding in groups to take better advantage of the draft.”
Waiting patiently on update with the HUD makeover.
Surprised that this update didn’t include the expanded third party workout integration. Any idea when that might be?
Just guessing on my part, but I think it’ll be here very soon. I’m going to guess within the next 2 updates.
Where’s the upgraded HUD? I saw a post a while back but I still have the old style?
It will be included in one of following updates during this summer. When exactly, no one can tell. At least from people I know 😉.
In case anybody is wondering the pairing update does not work with running. You still immediately when entering the pairing screen.
The white Tron is almost enough to make me buy the Zwift Ride. I think it would look better with white wheels though.
Is there any way to force an update in Windows?
No.
you can’t even uninstall and then reinstall as it will reinstall the old version.
Yes, I tagged you in the group post on how to do it.
Is it just me, or did this update also include a change for reward intervals above level 100. I went to bed and was 10k XP from refilling my progress bar, after my ride this morning, I was 17k XP from filling up the bar. It looks like it went from 12k interval to 20k.
Happened to me also. I noticed it yesterday morning. Mine went from 12k to 16k. I could find nothing on Zwift Forums about it. Found this webpage: https://support.zwift.com/en_us/tracking-your-rider-score-and-xp-SJYHuPI_i yesterday which shows new level system mentioned by Jon (Zwift Staff) on May 24 on Zwift Forum in Streak and XP Leveling Adjustments topic. Apparently this went live possibly yesterday with no word from Zwift. My wife just leveled up today and appears to be on this new leveling system.
Thanks. Ultimately it is a moot point for the moment since 50k more drops doesn’t make a difference when you’ve got 18 million unused drops and level 100 is the cap for the time being. It’s probably just going to end up impacting how many levels we can bank before the next expansion
Agree moot for those at level 100, but it definitely impacts everyone at all other levels. I’m really surprised Zwift made this unannounced change to the leveling system, especially after it was heavily discussed on Zwift Forums.
Before the last update i was on accelerated leveling until lvl96. I noticed today that the accelerated leveling is gone and i m lvl 80.
I just leveled up from 93 to 94 and noticed that suddenly more XP is required to complete a level. Thanks for the link; that makes sense now. I’m just wondering why Zwift didn’t include this in the release notes.
Happened to me too, came here for details…all I found was your comment lol
At level 95 the effort to reach level 100 now increased almost 50% . Before 1.69 the remaining 5 levels were 11k each makes 55k XP. Now it is 15k + 15k + 16k + 16k +20k = 82k XP. Not very motivating and it is not communicated by Zwift at all
See details on XP/level updates at https://zwiftinsider.com/level-changes-july-2024/
Can we also turn off that force field ? Fine if they come up with new ideas, but not everyone likes them so I really hope it is optional.
I’d just like it to save color selections for frames. Like if I get my Tron configured how I want, switch to another bike, and then back to the Tron, I want my previously-selected colors to still be there.
Seems that abuse could be possible: just put out 500 watts and then enter pairing screen (and switch between 2 HR monitors or whatever is necessary) and you maintain your watts/speed? Is that possible during races?
You don’t maintain speed unless your watts stay high. Entering the pairing screen doesn’t lock you into your current speed or wattage.
Wait a sec (or 5-10) my 7.x second ‘Grade’ KOM want real? 😉 surely it will be a ZI verified Strava seg?
Hey in another scenario if EVERYONE but me logs off and I end up with some jersey … did I ‘really earn it? (OK ‘no’ BUT…) ’ I wasn’t asking but I’ll take it (and screenshot it)!
Any idea when virtual shifting is coming to Kickr V4 (2018)?
Nope. Wahoo is strangely silent on the KICKR v5 and v4 firmware updates. Word is they’ve run into challenges due to running out of memory space with the v5 firmware, so I assume v4 has a similar problem.
Memory issues on v5 is a very lame excuse, that nobody with at least bit of logic won’t believe. Kickr Core released in 2018 doesn’t have any issues while strangely, v5, high-end trainer from 2020 allegedly has some memory issues. Also v4 came along the Core, so it must support virtual shifting from HW standpoint, too.
There’s an issue with insufficient memory space with the older KICKR models. Wahoo is trying to add virtual shifting without removing any other features. I admire what they are going but it may come down up asking what features are going to be dropped to add virtual shifting.
Can someone enlighten me about one of the icons on the new home screen (I haven’t been able to find info about it in any document or description). At the top right, to the right of the XP progress ring, there are three numbers: Drops on top, Level bottom left, and something with Flags bottom right. What is that something that is being counted?
That’s the new Zwift Racing Score: https://zwiftinsider.com/racing-score-2024-launch/
Still haven’t fixed the black /red squares?
When are we gonna get the storage shed? Having to parse through an entire bicycle superstore of kit, bikes and wheels is a pain. I know this has been asked for on the forum for several years and they keep saying: Zoon…
I just ride on the Tron and never change my outfits. It’s too fussy otherwise.
What I would love to see is a “Quit and Rejoin” facility. Often riders are dropped from group rides and the sweeps struggle to get them back so they have to manually quit and rejoin to ride with the Yellow beacon. To have one button for that would be fantastic.
Just opening up the teleport function to group rides and allowing riders to teleport to the beacon at any time would solve this issue.
If they’ve moved challenges to more visibility, could that mean they will release new challenges soon?
I do think that’s a very real possibility.
Where have the challanges go (like Everest, San Francisco, Tour of Italy…)?
Sounds like they’re also trying to entice more people onto their fugly Zwift branded trainer. Sounds like a great way to alienate your most loyal subscriber base, the ones who have been their pre-Covid. You know the ones who don’t complain about every price increase or Zwift update. All my 70k km, 9-yr membership, 50mm drops wants to do is paint my Tron bike white. That’s it.
Seems like they also once again messed up steering (at least on the Sterzo). Particularly at lower speeds you now get dragged back to the center of the lane abruptly. No more riding at the right / left side of the lane. This does not exactly help with immersion (which is why I use steering).
Zwift just informed me that they removed the change. Added note above:
UPDATE July 16, 2024: Zwift has rolled back the auto-steering change that enabled auto-steering once there was no steering input for 10 seconds.
Thx Eric!
Steering is back (even before the update to 1.70). Just completed the new Snowman route. Steering works like a charm. Thx!
How to you change the TRON bike to white? , still can change the wheels , but dont see how the frame is done . No big deal
bottom right corner of the screen (under the colour slider) there are two boxes – click one to get the paint scheme you want
https://zwiftinsider.com/ride-in-style-unlock/
Auto-Steer sucks and needs to be off by default. I rode up the “Oh Hell No” climb last night and it kept Auto-steering me back into 2/3rds of the way across the road, making me rider look like it was drunk. Even worse it would do this on the switch backs.
I fully second – it sucks. I spent money on Zwift Play to steer for riding where I(!) want to. It’s ridiculous to be continously enforced to react, it makes steering function useless to me & would like to return ZP.
Did a climb portal ride today, and every time I took the inside line on a curve and tried to hold it, I was auto-steered back to the middle of the road. What is the point of having steering if I cannot keep the bike where I want it? I hope Zwift will allow riders to turn it off.
Yup, this was enabled a few months back and was turned off again and I hope it’s revered again. I use my play controllers to take the shortest route and now I can’t do this without constantly steering.
it makes no sense when using a TT bike to be moved back into somebodies draft when I can’t benefit from that draft.
It looks like Zwift has ruined steering again! It worked well from the 1.66(?) version fix until 1.69. Now it is back to swerving from your selected line to the middle of the road or riding through another rider after 15 seconds.Very frustrating. Please go back to the previous version for steering control which worked perfectly.
Zwift just informed me that they removed the change. Added note above:
UPDATE July 16, 2024: Zwift has rolled back the auto-steering change that enabled auto-steering once there was no steering input for 10 seconds.
Any idea of when training api connections will happen?
This summer, is all Zwift said. I bet within 2 months. Quite possibly much sooner.
Steering has been ruined by the update. I try to get a good racing line or move out of someone’s line but every 5 seconds or so, I get moved to the centre and have to keep fighting against the automatic reset.
Zwift just informed me that they removed the change. Added note above:
UPDATE July 16, 2024: Zwift has rolled back the auto-steering change that enabled auto-steering once there was no steering input for 10 seconds.
OK, thanks Eric. It was still there yesterday but I’ll look out for it today.
I like some of the concepts in the steering update however auto steering towards centre after just 10sec is garbage. If I choose a line then I want to be there until I choose otherwise or until a draft is available.
TBH I would prefer they revert back to the old system for now as like someone said above, steering is now more work…
Zwift just informed me that they removed the change. Added note above:
UPDATE July 16, 2024: Zwift has rolled back the auto-steering change that enabled auto-steering once there was no steering input for 10 seconds.
The steering bug (where you automatically steer to the centre of the road after a few seconds) happened before after an update. However, Zwift fixed it in the next update. So, we’ll probably have to wait a few days and it will be fixed again.
Zwift just informed me that they removed the change. Added note above:
UPDATE July 16, 2024: Zwift has rolled back the auto-steering change that enabled auto-steering once there was no steering input for 10 seconds.
Not sure of the point of the force field visuals when steering, particularly as you can plough straight through a rider in front when approaching from behind
On my windows laptop, Zwift just shuts down after about 60 seconds, either when nothing is happening or I am moving from one section to another.
EDIT – I rebooted the laptop and it seems to be working OK for now.
@eric Schlange, This July 16 roolback is the withdrawn version 1.69.2?
Because I’m sure I had v1.69.2 and now peeking into the tray I see version 1.69 🙂
Far as I know there hasn’t been a 1.69.2. There was a .2 subversion a couple releases ago, are you sure you aren’t thinking of that?
I checked now in the logs and it turns out that I got something mixed up 😉
I had version v1.68.2.
Sorry for the confusion.
regards