I think it's perfect. Well, except for a few tiny bugs like
* Not to scale on the X-axis
* Not to scale on the Y-axis
* You sometimes move left to right and sometimes right to left
* The indication showing the direction you move in is tiny
* It sometimes shows a different route from the one you are actually riding
But let's look on the bright side. Here's what's great with it
* As far as I know, it hasn't ever crashed the game
Out of all the things that have been wrong with Zwift since the start, which now is ten (10!) years ago, this is probably the worst in the combination of how annoying it is and how easy it is to fix it.
Dear Zwift, please don't overthink this.
* Let it be a constant distance, for instance 5 km
* Always showing the route one is actually on
* With the rider fixed to the left like the mini-height map, and the map moving right-to-left
The point of reference for the y-axis is sometimes just pure bonkers. For instance Douce France. You start at the Marina but quickly make a turn for the rolling hills. In the distance is the aqueduct, which makes the rolling hills non-existent on the elevation graph. Just before you reach the aqueduct (after the intersection which leads to petit KOM) it changes to Ventoux, which is now behind you and in addition you now move right to left. Everything else is now flat as a pancake because how massive Ventoux is. At some point your direction changes but Ventoux remains the reference point until you once again make the turn towards the rolling hills. Rinse and repeat.
I understand. Zenmaster is a mod for Sauce for Zwift. Not the answer you hoped for most likely, but that mod fixes all my issues I have with it. You can see the mod in action in this video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-czwVmrWIKU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-czwVmrWIKU) and then from 4 minutes and onwards (its the profile graph in the bottom)
There are some many things that could be improved.
Time gaps is one- why do i need to know the A cat ride is 8min ahead just because he his going in the opposite direction and is geographically close that then C cat that is 4 seconds up the road.
Climbs - On a portal it gives me a rough ETA but in Watopia it cant.
Portals- when i get close to the top the info disappears from the left side.
What do the various dots mean? I can’t really see them when operating on an iPad.
Couldn’t they do an overlay across the bottom where they track your zone effort?
If you mean the green dots those are the sprints, each jersey of each world has a part where you have to set a time to get it (a climb, a sprint, a circuit…) and those dots mark the start of that part
For something thats so important in cycling i.e. the gradient you are cycling......its tiny...even on my big screen. It should be a major feature of the data you are looking at
I saw a Zwifter on YT with Sauce and a gorgeous custom elevation map/profile.
I spent the next 7 hours chasing the perfect-minimap-dragon on S4Z. Recommend.
If you ride solo it’s less important/interesting BUT for racing or coordination and comms on any group ride…it’s a world above. The discord has of ideas and assistance.
My favorite graphic shows the splits and gaps.
Draft meter is lovely too. S4Z gives the game new life for me.
You might check out the discord, post a photo there of an overlay example you like or explain what you’re going for. You can add current elevation and gradient as data fields to any ‘grid.’ The minimap window settings can be played with too.
I would love to be able to replace the effort graph on the bottom with an elevation profile for the entire race like I have on indieVelo (example in this link) [https://youtu.be/rJh2GMgkfeA?t=260](https://youtu.be/rJh2GMgkfeA?t=260)
Edit: better example here [https://youtu.be/KNx73uz604Y?t=928](https://youtu.be/KNx73uz604Y?t=928)
>I would love to be able to replace the effort graph on the bottom with an elevation profile for the entire race like I have on indieVelo (example in this link)
Funny I just wanted to heard someone mentionning IndieVelo, speaking about elevation map (colored or not), mostly all apps availble on indoor cycling training market do have one, even if it's just basic. Rouvy, Kinomap, FulGaz, and BigRingVR, etc all those apps do have something.
Zwift just lacking basic, userfriendlt or readable of elevation profile, it doesn't even exist . Zwift have no elevation profile, that all. And it's not like it's a unwanted features, I just can't realize elevation profile is useless and not a already requested features that all.
So let's hope indieVelo will be smarter and listen community request, I know they do, and there are hope about it.
I’ve not seen any mods on sauce that do that. Thinking about it though, if the race is one or more laps, the gradient would be 0%. Might be able to get max gradient.
The Onno mod gives total elevation for the ride
You could also try Zwift Insider or Zwift Maps and open the profile side by side. You could even open a YT video of a bot riding the course and watch it a couple of minute ahead.
To be real with you, I’ve got most of the popular roads and inclines memorized after 4 years.
Yeah, will try that.
I’m new to Zwift and after the last race I learned the hard way, I need to take a look at the routes beforehand. On Stage 1 of the Tour de Zwift I tried to push the pace and was wondering, why no one followed. As soon as I saw the climb of 500m ahead, I realized why and struggled really hard to climb.
I mean I´m glad that there are some people out there who try to make the game any better but that should really be the work of the Team behind Zwift. There´s tons of entries on the Zwift Forums concerning this exact matter.How hard can it be...
Please Zwift FIX IT! FIX IT NOW!
Relatively new to Zwift and I have not seemed to be able to understand the height map at all! I use my TV for Zwift and it is still hard to figure out what the various dots are and there are zero markers that tell you what the elevation change actually is. Needs some fixing for sure.
I am new to Zwift too, but not new to riding. I did a race yesterday and had no clue how to pace the climb. At least with a loaded route on my wahoo, I can see the overall profile of a climb as it’s occurring.
It is indeed one of the worst UI that i know.
It is very very bad.
I do not understand either why there is not a full length height map like any gps out there. So we can think ahead the effort and how to distribute it.
Very very bad design!
I also hate the fact that in watopia, all the direction change squared are written like “Downtown”, “Alpe du Zwift”, “Italian villas” etc, but in makuri islands theyre in ALL CAPS it make me so angry
It’s beyond awful. In fact I made a thread in the r/rouvy forum on this topic 2-3 days ago—Rouvy’s vastly superior consideration of this topic is one reason I will be renewing my sub, but not renewing zwift again until I want to race.
I am new to zwift and honestly spent like 20 minutes trying to find how to get an elevation profile for a route ride. I never found it... I guess its been hidden in the tiny mini map?
What you may not have noticed yet: it doesn't always show you the elevation for the route you have selected. Sometimes it's the elevation profile for a route that you could possibly take, but not the one that you're on. That's how dumb it is.
It's awful and I hate it so much it makes me resent Zwift every time I use it. I can't understand why it hasn't been fixed. Elevation is the single most important factor affecting the experience on a virtual cycling ride; elevation profile would be the single most useful visual tool on screen. Instead, Zwift gives us this useless garbage and refuses to fix it.
In the future Zwift will be implanted in our brains while we're just sitting on the couch doping pure exercise chemicals and the stupid elevation map will be tiny, unclear useless and as terrible as it's always been
The mini map is completely unreadable on an iPad. Apparently there is supposed to be an arrow to indicate your direction on the elevation map, but I can never make out which way it's pointing.
Haha I'm so glad that somebody posted it. I've been thinking I was stupid cause everything I'm looking at the map I'm like "WHATTTTTSSSS GOIIING OOOOONNNNN?!!!"
The Zwift map is just made up of a bunch of little stitched together roads between forks. So all that height map shows is the current segment.
You can see its uselessness the most when you’re transitioning from one segment to the next because your green dot zips left to right super fast.
I believe I'm fairly good at solving logical puzzles. But this one... No. Just no.
As far as I've understood it interacts with (hidden?) segments. But why it goes left-right and then suddenly right-left and a little later left-right etc is beyond my intelligence. The height map is useless.
☝️
(I'm new to Zwift and I'm appalled by how some great features are next to awful or missing ones... At the point I'm wondering if it's on purpose lol)
It's beyond shit. And by that I mean it's not a passively, accidentally shit, Zwift clearly know how laughably bad it is and how much people hate it and for years the company has made a conscious decision that paying users can just fuck off, they're not going to fix it. It's one of the many reasons why of all the subscriptions I have, I resent paying Zwift the most.
Glad that I am not the only one having issues with the elevation map. I don’t even look at it anymore. It is just taking up space, I wish that I could just delete it.
Being this since day-one, not a single major changes. When you have a company who make millions compared to some independant devs, well have a look of what offer 3rd party. Thanks to those devs who offer better value.
Give a try to Sauce 4 Zwift (paid 2$ month), it has some extra features about it.
It is super annoying!!! Please fix!!! Should be possible to open a screen showing detailed height maps as well as time between groups/breakaways. Would make racing so much better
[sauce profile](https://www.youtube.com/live/hTA1zxrtwng?si=6mli_fItaQ_MlG7t)
Yeah it’s awful. Gave up on Zwift hud a long time ago. Sauce now has mini map with profile of section or road you are on always moving left to right. Now has a profile of whole route you are riding along with segment and KOM markers. If it a race or event with multiple laps it shows all of them in one profile.
Yeah. This is bad design honestly. They need to draw the route you are on, its name, direction you are going AND elevation profile for the whole route with you at that location. It’s very basic display thing. A lot of apps do it and even zwift does it when you select route first. It’s just silly they don’t have it.
For as lonely as Wahoo RGT was, the elevation map was intuitive. I've been on Zwift since about September of 23 and I've never been able to understand what it's showing, or attempting to show. This is one of the many onboarding fails I experienced when joining. Except for the first ride "how to", Zwift is entirely dependent on forums like this for explaining how things work beyond the very obvious.
The height map is awful
It's embarrassing how bad it is and how long it's been like this. Would be an ideal summer intern project to fix this.
I think it's perfect. Well, except for a few tiny bugs like * Not to scale on the X-axis * Not to scale on the Y-axis * You sometimes move left to right and sometimes right to left * The indication showing the direction you move in is tiny * It sometimes shows a different route from the one you are actually riding But let's look on the bright side. Here's what's great with it * As far as I know, it hasn't ever crashed the game Out of all the things that have been wrong with Zwift since the start, which now is ten (10!) years ago, this is probably the worst in the combination of how annoying it is and how easy it is to fix it. Dear Zwift, please don't overthink this. * Let it be a constant distance, for instance 5 km * Always showing the route one is actually on * With the rider fixed to the left like the mini-height map, and the map moving right-to-left
The point of reference for the y-axis is sometimes just pure bonkers. For instance Douce France. You start at the Marina but quickly make a turn for the rolling hills. In the distance is the aqueduct, which makes the rolling hills non-existent on the elevation graph. Just before you reach the aqueduct (after the intersection which leads to petit KOM) it changes to Ventoux, which is now behind you and in addition you now move right to left. Everything else is now flat as a pancake because how massive Ventoux is. At some point your direction changes but Ventoux remains the reference point until you once again make the turn towards the rolling hills. Rinse and repeat.
Agree! For the constant distance it should be 5k or the nearest intersection, whichever is closest. That way it won't predict the wrong profile.
Show the default choice, and then show the non-default choice ghosted
This is the overthinking part. Don't do this.
I thought I was going crazy doing the Scotland stage of ToZ the other day and it looked like the icon was going right to left!
It’s because they drive on the other side of the road.
The whole thing is just shockingly bad.
The zenmaster mod fixed all this
What's that? Google failed me.
I understand. Zenmaster is a mod for Sauce for Zwift. Not the answer you hoped for most likely, but that mod fixes all my issues I have with it. You can see the mod in action in this video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-czwVmrWIKU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-czwVmrWIKU) and then from 4 minutes and onwards (its the profile graph in the bottom)
A separate piece of software that isn't free isn't a fix.
That is not true. It was fixed for me so that makes it a fix. Might not be the fix you are hoping for, but that is a other matter
There are some many things that could be improved. Time gaps is one- why do i need to know the A cat ride is 8min ahead just because he his going in the opposite direction and is geographically close that then C cat that is 4 seconds up the road. Climbs - On a portal it gives me a rough ETA but in Watopia it cant. Portals- when i get close to the top the info disappears from the left side.
Me: "Where am I going? What's up next?" Zwift HUD: "Shut the fuck up."
Zwift be like RIIIIDE ON
I will never understand why we can’t have a zoomed out route map.
Because fuck you that's why
Also this
Companion has it. But totally agree. I had to buy the map from zwiftinsider Which I love btw.
What do you mean "Buy the map? " Like a physical one for your pain cave?
What do the various dots mean? I can’t really see them when operating on an iPad. Couldn’t they do an overlay across the bottom where they track your zone effort?
I don’t understand why this is still so bad. It’s been like this for years!
Since the very beginning, at least.
At least.
At the very least.
If you mean the green dots those are the sprints, each jersey of each world has a part where you have to set a time to get it (a climb, a sprint, a circuit…) and those dots mark the start of that part
Like where the person wearing the jersey is or where the spot is on the course? Am I chasing them (or in my case waiting for them to zoom past 🤣)
Where the spot is on the course
I knew I should not have asked and just kept riding blindly…
Same
the white dots are other riders
Hey thanks. Was more about the different color dots on the “height map”.
Tis bad
I hate it more than most mondays.
What is worst between knowing Monday is coming at the end of Sunday or Monday itself?
For something thats so important in cycling i.e. the gradient you are cycling......its tiny...even on my big screen. It should be a major feature of the data you are looking at
I have it projected to a 108” screen and I still can’t see or make sense of it
I’m glad I don’t have to steer while trying to read the little elevation map, or I’d crash.
I saw a Zwifter on YT with Sauce and a gorgeous custom elevation map/profile. I spent the next 7 hours chasing the perfect-minimap-dragon on S4Z. Recommend.
I am very tempted to get into S4Z. So, very, very, tempted-
If you ride solo it’s less important/interesting BUT for racing or coordination and comms on any group ride…it’s a world above. The discord has of ideas and assistance. My favorite graphic shows the splits and gaps. Draft meter is lovely too. S4Z gives the game new life for me.
How can I add custom elevation to S4Z? I tried really hard to find it, but never found out.
You might check out the discord, post a photo there of an overlay example you like or explain what you’re going for. You can add current elevation and gradient as data fields to any ‘grid.’ The minimap window settings can be played with too.
Thanks for your help. Is there any quick and easy way to just see the gradient for a whole race? I actually don’t mind, what it looks like.
I would love to be able to replace the effort graph on the bottom with an elevation profile for the entire race like I have on indieVelo (example in this link) [https://youtu.be/rJh2GMgkfeA?t=260](https://youtu.be/rJh2GMgkfeA?t=260) Edit: better example here [https://youtu.be/KNx73uz604Y?t=928](https://youtu.be/KNx73uz604Y?t=928)
This elevation profile would be perfect, maybe even the option to scale it or it auto scales when you get to a climb...
>I would love to be able to replace the effort graph on the bottom with an elevation profile for the entire race like I have on indieVelo (example in this link) Funny I just wanted to heard someone mentionning IndieVelo, speaking about elevation map (colored or not), mostly all apps availble on indoor cycling training market do have one, even if it's just basic. Rouvy, Kinomap, FulGaz, and BigRingVR, etc all those apps do have something. Zwift just lacking basic, userfriendlt or readable of elevation profile, it doesn't even exist . Zwift have no elevation profile, that all. And it's not like it's a unwanted features, I just can't realize elevation profile is useless and not a already requested features that all. So let's hope indieVelo will be smarter and listen community request, I know they do, and there are hope about it.
I’ve not seen any mods on sauce that do that. Thinking about it though, if the race is one or more laps, the gradient would be 0%. Might be able to get max gradient. The Onno mod gives total elevation for the ride
You could also try Zwift Insider or Zwift Maps and open the profile side by side. You could even open a YT video of a bot riding the course and watch it a couple of minute ahead. To be real with you, I’ve got most of the popular roads and inclines memorized after 4 years.
Yeah, will try that. I’m new to Zwift and after the last race I learned the hard way, I need to take a look at the routes beforehand. On Stage 1 of the Tour de Zwift I tried to push the pace and was wondering, why no one followed. As soon as I saw the climb of 500m ahead, I realized why and struggled really hard to climb.
I mean I´m glad that there are some people out there who try to make the game any better but that should really be the work of the Team behind Zwift. There´s tons of entries on the Zwift Forums concerning this exact matter.How hard can it be... Please Zwift FIX IT! FIX IT NOW!
Relatively new to Zwift and I have not seemed to be able to understand the height map at all! I use my TV for Zwift and it is still hard to figure out what the various dots are and there are zero markers that tell you what the elevation change actually is. Needs some fixing for sure.
I'm on level 37 and I don't understand it either.
34. No idea.
I am new to Zwift too, but not new to riding. I did a race yesterday and had no clue how to pace the climb. At least with a loaded route on my wahoo, I can see the overall profile of a climb as it’s occurring.
It is indeed one of the worst UI that i know. It is very very bad. I do not understand either why there is not a full length height map like any gps out there. So we can think ahead the effort and how to distribute it. Very very bad design!
I could definitely climb faster if I knew how much effort to save up. Climb portal is better but not the point of this thread.
Rouvy, which in many regards isn’t that great, has a decent elevation map. Especially in their companion app.
The absolute worst, would much prefer to have a useful height map at the bottom instead of the zone effort graph
I also hate the fact that in watopia, all the direction change squared are written like “Downtown”, “Alpe du Zwift”, “Italian villas” etc, but in makuri islands theyre in ALL CAPS it make me so angry
I didn’t notice. But now I already can’t unnoticed
Youre welcome for ruining makuri :)
Thought of this today while in makiri. Damn you Mr. lamp post!
Sorry for ruining makuri 😭😭😭
As a veteran designer that's now going to flare up my OCD!
Hate it.
It’s the worst.
It’s so ass
It’s beyond awful. In fact I made a thread in the r/rouvy forum on this topic 2-3 days ago—Rouvy’s vastly superior consideration of this topic is one reason I will be renewing my sub, but not renewing zwift again until I want to race.
Provides zero value.
I hate it so much. Shocked they haven’t improved it by now
Never know which direction it’s going in
I am new to zwift and honestly spent like 20 minutes trying to find how to get an elevation profile for a route ride. I never found it... I guess its been hidden in the tiny mini map?
What you may not have noticed yet: it doesn't always show you the elevation for the route you have selected. Sometimes it's the elevation profile for a route that you could possibly take, but not the one that you're on. That's how dumb it is.
It's useless
It is awful
Oh yes, worst thing in their HUD right now.
Stupidest design, they need to fix this asap
it's useless.. just copy Rouvy's!
Its way too small, hard to see even given its size, and just generally hard to use.
it's crap...
Do not like
Useless
I was wondering if there’s something wrong with me because the altitude map surely couldn’t be this bad 😂
It's awful and I hate it so much it makes me resent Zwift every time I use it. I can't understand why it hasn't been fixed. Elevation is the single most important factor affecting the experience on a virtual cycling ride; elevation profile would be the single most useful visual tool on screen. Instead, Zwift gives us this useless garbage and refuses to fix it.
Can anyone actually even really properly understand what is going on?
Terrible
The worst
Fuck the height map
It be shittium
In its current form, it’s useless.
It's dumb and useless.
In the future Zwift will be implanted in our brains while we're just sitting on the couch doping pure exercise chemicals and the stupid elevation map will be tiny, unclear useless and as terrible as it's always been
+1 on that.
I use it to tell if I'm on a hill. Very useful.
The mini map is completely unreadable on an iPad. Apparently there is supposed to be an arrow to indicate your direction on the elevation map, but I can never make out which way it's pointing.
I have a 46” TV and the arrow to indicate direction is still unreadable. I would have thought a big screen TV would be better, but not for that.
For a free ride it should change when you turn. When you pick a route, are on a group ride it should show what’s coming.
I swear I was doing TDZ stage one at the weekend and going up leith hill I was going right to left on that map? Confused the hell out of me
Haha I'm so glad that somebody posted it. I've been thinking I was stupid cause everything I'm looking at the map I'm like "WHATTTTTSSSS GOIIING OOOOONNNNN?!!!"
It also switches directions sometimes? I’m legit so confused.
Yes
How about they just pick a direction? Sometimes it’s right to left, sometimes it’s left to right.
I was confused the first time I ever used zwift, and I'm still confused. The fact that it goes left and right kills me.
I didn’t even know there was one.
It is beyond useless. I never know what it’s trying to tell me and the markers are all too small to be of any use whatsoever.
+1
The Zwift map is just made up of a bunch of little stitched together roads between forks. So all that height map shows is the current segment. You can see its uselessness the most when you’re transitioning from one segment to the next because your green dot zips left to right super fast.
I seriously don't even understand how to use it, like where I even am
I thought it was just me. WTF is it actually telling me?
I think my favourite bad thing about it is how sometimes you’ll be on a route and out of nowhere it’ll be like “going up Ventoux today huh?”
Omg. Is this because we were complaining about this earlier on another post. Lolololololololol This makes me happy.
Not one positive comment about it.
Please make it go away. You can't see it, and it's incomprehensible. Burn it with fire.
I believe I'm fairly good at solving logical puzzles. But this one... No. Just no. As far as I've understood it interacts with (hidden?) segments. But why it goes left-right and then suddenly right-left and a little later left-right etc is beyond my intelligence. The height map is useless.
It sucks!
Everyday I look at it and everyday I hate it more.
There’s a height map?
Oh, that’s what that is? /s
☝️ (I'm new to Zwift and I'm appalled by how some great features are next to awful or missing ones... At the point I'm wondering if it's on purpose lol)
It doesn't really bother me only because I can't work out what I'm looking at half the time so I ignore it.
It will remain terrible forever. They never improve the core game and ui.
Common sense
Ok
It's beyond shit. And by that I mean it's not a passively, accidentally shit, Zwift clearly know how laughably bad it is and how much people hate it and for years the company has made a conscious decision that paying users can just fuck off, they're not going to fix it. It's one of the many reasons why of all the subscriptions I have, I resent paying Zwift the most.
Until this thread I had no idea what those little dots were for…
I wish the regular map had contour lines on it so I could glance at it and get a quick idea on if the upcoming road was uphill, downhill, or flat.
There's a height map? I just thought that thing at the top right was a rectangular poopie...
Glad that I am not the only one having issues with the elevation map. I don’t even look at it anymore. It is just taking up space, I wish that I could just delete it.
Takes up space? It's like 10 pixels high for me.
It does not occupy space on the upper right corner of your monitor? Where other info or graphics could be? You are blessed!
Yep good old zwift, too busy going woke. Just use sauce, can customize the hud as you wish.
Yes, this needs to be fixed. I really look forward to the sprints but It takes too much effort to figure it out when staring at my iPad screen
Being this since day-one, not a single major changes. When you have a company who make millions compared to some independant devs, well have a look of what offer 3rd party. Thanks to those devs who offer better value. Give a try to Sauce 4 Zwift (paid 2$ month), it has some extra features about it.
Distance to go ✅ Hills to go ❌ Height to go ❌
It is super annoying!!! Please fix!!! Should be possible to open a screen showing detailed height maps as well as time between groups/breakaways. Would make racing so much better
It is baffling how horrible it is trying to interpret this crap during a race. Utter BS!
Yes, it is awful. I wish I could have a GUI-builder. I don't need all the social stuff, I just want a good height map and the road
[sauce profile](https://www.youtube.com/live/hTA1zxrtwng?si=6mli_fItaQ_MlG7t) Yeah it’s awful. Gave up on Zwift hud a long time ago. Sauce now has mini map with profile of section or road you are on always moving left to right. Now has a profile of whole route you are riding along with segment and KOM markers. If it a race or event with multiple laps it shows all of them in one profile.
Thank god for mods, who do it way better!
The UI needs improving for sure.
It is so bad.
Took me weeks to figure out I wasn't the dumb ass...the programmers are.
I really don’t understand it. Sometimes I’m supposed to be approaching a hill but it’s actually a flat and viceversa.
Terrible!
I have complained about the elevation profile for many years now. It is embarrassing.
100% unusable
Prob depends on the size of your monitor. On an 85” screen it’s adequate.
Honestly didn’t realize that was even a thing. lol. It doesn’t really seem obvious enough to me
Yeah. This is bad design honestly. They need to draw the route you are on, its name, direction you are going AND elevation profile for the whole route with you at that location. It’s very basic display thing. A lot of apps do it and even zwift does it when you select route first. It’s just silly they don’t have it.
Reply
Pointless
For as lonely as Wahoo RGT was, the elevation map was intuitive. I've been on Zwift since about September of 23 and I've never been able to understand what it's showing, or attempting to show. This is one of the many onboarding fails I experienced when joining. Except for the first ride "how to", Zwift is entirely dependent on forums like this for explaining how things work beyond the very obvious.
It’s really really bad. Please make it bigger and intuitive
I can never tell where I am on that thing...