Zwift version 1.83 begins its phased rollout today. This release doesn’t contain any major new features, but does include some graphics upgrades for Android and MacOS users, as well as a video screenshots fix for Windows 11.
Graphics Upgrades
Zwift’s level of graphical detail is automatically set by the game, and today’s update enables better graphics for certain android and MacOS devices.
Android devices with more than 4GB of RAM will see improved textures and 3D models for items like avatar accessories (kits, helmets, socks), bikes, and surrounding terrain.
If you’re a macOS user, you may notice an upgrade in your graphics experience. The higher “Ultra” graphics profile is now enabled for devices with the following chips: Apple M4 (all versions), M3 Max, M3 Pro, M2 Ultra, M2 Max, M2 Pro, M1 Ultra, M1 Max, M1 Pro. The “High” graphics profile is now enabled for devices with the following chips: Apple M3, M2, M1.
Windows Video Screenshots Fix
Zwift’s Video screenshots are a popular feature among Zwifters running powerful enough devices to allow the feature. Unfortunately, some PC-based Zwifters (myself included) lost video screenshots when we automatically updated to Windows 11 version 24H2 which came out in November 2024.
Today’s update fixes video screenshots for Windows users. To celebrate, here’s an automatically-recorded video screenshot of my buddy Zane winning his race:
Release Notes
Zwift provided notes on additional tweaks and bug fixes in this update:
- Fixed an issue that could cause custom workouts imported from other training apps to not be removed after being deleted.
- Fixed an issue that could allow Zwifters to steer off of the roadway on the City and the Sgurr route in Scotland.
- Android: If insufficient storage space is available to install Zwift, the specific amount of needed storage is now shown to make it easier to know how much space to free up.
- General stability improvements.
Discuss this update in Zwift’s forum >
Questions or Comments?
If you spotted any other changes or bugs in the update, please comment below!
I keep hoping these updates will include the new garage stuff and bike upgrades…
Likewise, but no, nothing once again….
Same here but with the TdZ going on to keep people subscribed it’s unlikely that they would release another feature which will keep people paying. Unfortunately makes sense to hold it back which is a real shame.
Spoiler alert: They maybe like the easter bunny and santa claus and not really exist.
Me too!
It’s coming. But delayed.
Until? Next Season On Zwift? Would be nice if ZHQ would communicate these things.
I’m not allowed to say precisely. (Sometimes Zwift shares stuff with me that I can’t share with others.)
How about… less than two months from now. 😜
The funny Thing is, I do not spend a single Drop since the announcement of the upgrades and am now at 10 Mio drops for the upgrades….
I used to see Astana Team Pro certified guys riding Wilier on the Windy Bald Mountain route on the French map a couple of years ago. But the garage obviously doesn’t have Wilier. now the blogger’s hinting is most likely the colnago Y1RS.
Would love to see better graphics on my AppleTV 4K (A15 bionic chip). Such a shame to have excellent definition on everything except Zwift.
Yeah, that needs to happen!
Kinda waiting when they will finish the hud upgrades.
Heads up, life is awesome, so don’t hold your breath waiting for zwift.
Hud upgrades are done. Doubt we are getting more
Wow! Absolutely in loove with this update! So much new stuff to look forward to!
Jim, do I detect a hint of sarcasm?
Could be buddy!
Hi,
So not sure what to think, I launched my session at 4:32PM GMT+1 and it crashed just after radio tower climb (black screen stuck for 5min), I had to restart my computer, then the game prompted me to install the update, so not sure what to think about this. Obv, it could be a internet loss connection on my end, altough my router uptime, didn’t reset and I haven’t notice any disconnections. but maybe, could you guys roll out the updates another time in the day ? I feel like rolling out update between 4PM to 9PM is not a good idea.
BTW, this is my first game crash since I use zwift (2000km today) 🙁 I could recover and upload to strava but missing my radio tower climb segment, it stopped in the middle, altough, I had the PR saved within the game ghosts (I redid the climb after the crash, no PR this time tho 🙁 )
I think you have put 2 and 3 together and come up with 4.
With the price increase (which I was totally okay with), one thing zwift could have offered by now is the draft indicator. I end up paying 2.46euros extra per month for something that offers a competitive advantage on races, to which zwift should provide that to customers and promote a level playing field.
Training Peaks Virtual has a draft indicator and a wind speed /.direction indicator. It’s free at least until March 2025
It will be very hard for any other competitor to grow since this is basically a network app.
The product itself might even be better, but one wants to be where everyone else is. In this case, that’s zwift.
Unfortunately this allows zwift to not innovate as much. To get complacent.
Paused my subscription in June, for 3 months. Back in october. This month (february) is the last chance I give to Zwift to make real improves. In other case, I’ll change to MyWhoosh or Tacx. I’m tired of this.
Cancel it instead. I’ll tell you why. At the end of the period you pause it for, they start billing again.
Example – you pause for 4 weeks but don’t go back to using it until 6 weeks is up. They start billing you again at the end of 4 weeks. If you cancel it all your progress is saved in terms of experience points and drops acquired, and you don;t get billed until YOU reactivated. There is an article somewhere on this site explaining the difference between pausing, cancelling, and deleting your account
https://zwiftinsider.com/zwift-subscriptions/
I kept It paused for 3 months… But maybe I cancelled It and then came back. Don’t remember It exactly.
I may be missing something about the article saying the M2 now gets the High profile. I use a Mac Mini M2. According to Zwiftalizer, it’s had the “High” profile since I got it.
You aren’t missing anything, no changes to non-Pro/Max/Ultra editions of M1/M2/M3.
And on the familiar MyWoosh app, more and more cyclists. There are more and more beautiful routes out there. Training plans and all this for free. Zwift wake up.
MyWhoosh isn’t “free”. I won’t use it for many reasons the least is who really is footing the bill. I’ll stick to programs of this genre I pay for.
Much of the online free stuff starts out really great, But after it gets to maximum possible market share, it turns a corner to reveal its true business strategy and gets progressively worse from that point.
In the history of the Internet, all kinds of really nice (especially free) services were replaced with not-very-nice and yet expensive services. Frequently, there are no reasonably nice replacement services for them at all.
A guy named Cory Doctorow popularized the term “ensh1tification” to describe this transition from excellence to sh1t.
The ‘Enshittification’ of TikTok
https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-platforms-cory-doctorow/
My McLuhan lecture on enshittification
https://medium.com/p/ea343342b9bc
For right now, I choose to keep Zwift alive to hopefully prevent the ensh1tifiction of virtual cycling. It’s not that expensive now compared to the possible future wasteland that almost always results from “free” services.
Wow.
How many FPS do you get with an M4 (30 or 60)?
I get steady 60 on 1440p on a base M1 MacBook Air – So the M4 will easily get way more than that.
This is what my M4 Max is getting.
…and here is today’s ride via Zwiftalizer
Are they tuning the draft dynamics again? It seems our team which is usually pretty organized at TTT were having issues with guys shooting forward. We though it was maybe because the course was so flat, but now in talking with other teams, they’ve also said they were having a hard time holding the line
Far as I know nothing was changed. Zwift is pretty wary of changing event drafting behavior without a lot of testing…
Jon has said they’re constantly playing with it, and refuse to engage with the community because we’ll all going hallucinate changes to pack behavior if he were to tell us anything.
They are trying out a few things on some routes and courses.
I left my Zwift Plays on last night to keep virtual steering and repeatedly found myself to the side (usually to the left) of the paceline. Even when my teammates left a 2 bike gap for me to fall into. Not sure if it was visual or if I was actually losing draft, but it was pretty annoying. Might have to get around to unboxing that Zwift Click I bought on discount for just these rides before the next TTT.
No steering enabled, but with Miguel robo pacer I found myself far left for seemingly no reason for quite a long time, far from the double pace line.
Go Zane!
He’s strong… indoors and out!
Would love to see some useful upgrades instead of minimally better graphics.
If it wasn’t for virtual shifting I’d switch to another platform today. I’m so sick of Zwift freezing and crashing. Not being able to preselect workouts or routes for my next session. (And no, not the favourites list)
@Eric Schlange Looks like they got rid of the rounded watts in workouts with this update. I did a workout today and was wondering, why I was riding w/ 232W instead of 230W.
I noticed after the update that my white tron bike is no longer white. Tried changing from the normal black version to the white you get with the Zwift Ride but it remained black.
Yes, mine too… cmon zwift i want my white tron back!
Hey there @Eric Schlange , I just noticed that the recent added challenges (cardio crusher, the grade route chaser, and the racer’s edge) have badges on them saying “leaving soon!” Any idea on what the timeline is for this? I’m on the last section of each of them and want to know how much time I have left or if I should just try to stuff it all in to this weekend. Thanks for all the work you’ve been doing on this site!
If you click on the challenge, it says you need to complete it until February 28th to get credit for it. I don’t know why they are going to remove those challenges, but thank you for pointing it out. I completed only one out of the three so far.
The video started working again on my windows PC. It hadn’t gor a while.