New version 0.7.3.1 Zwift Play support, more character choices and much more

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Version 0.7.3.1 is out now. Get it from the Downloads page.

Zwift Play Support

A few months ago Zwift introduced a new piece of hardware, the Zwift Play, a split game pad meant to be attached to the handlebars of your road bike, to make controlling their software more confortable. After a month of investigation I was able to connect to it and enable it’s use in the mod.
The controller can be used as a steering device, braking device and a key pad at the same time, and the actions of each button can be configured individually. The key mappings can be changed in the mod’s ini file.
It also has a haptic feedback feature, that I’ve used to mimic the Road Feel Tacx support in their smart bike trainers. Road feel can also be deactivated in the ini file if you find it annoying.
The game pad will allow you to look behind, change the camera, change the radio station, enable or disable ERG mode, select a new destination or toggle auto drive on and off. I would like to hear from you to see what other actions will you be interested in controlling with this buttons.

New Peds to choose from

A number of new characters have been added to choose from. Apart from Michael, Trevor and Franklin, there are 13 more peds to choose from. They have different cycling kits that will give a little more variety to your rides.

Support for Tacx Bluetooth proprietary protocol

Tacx Neo 2 and 2T use a proprietary Bluetooth protocol instead of FTMS. This version of the mod can connect to it and even send the road feel commands. You don’t need an ANT stick to use these trainers anymore.

Support for cadence only operation

The mod accepts now a cadence sensor as a valid source of power. It assumes a fixed gear of 48×16 and a default wheel size of 2100mm. The cadence is converted to speed using those parameters and then the speed is converted to power using the same power curve of the speed sensor. The power curve can be tailored to your own stationary bike.

Bluetooth support improvements

The Bluetooth device library “BLE_Receiver.dll” has been completely rewritten to address a number of issues. It should be more stable now, especially with phone apps that bridge dumb trainers and treadmills, such as QZ Fitness or Treadmill connect.

FTMS general connectivity is improved also, and most of the trainers supporting this protocol will work without issues now (i.e Jetback Volt, Zwift Hub)
The support for Kickr bike handlebar buttons has been updated also and now you can use the buttons not only to steer or brake, but also to navigate the menus and some other actions.

Reversed courses and optional looping

Courses can be ridden in reverse now by selecting an option in the course selection window. You can also disable the looping for a looped course if you just want to do a lap and then continue free roaming.

Heading to the closest player on connection

When the mod is activated and connected to the server, if there are more players connected, you will be headed to the closest player. This way it will be easier to find and meet other players.

Alert if no devices are found at start up

To help a bit with the confusion of new users, a banner indicating there are no devices detected is shown until a suitable device is connected.

Real time clock

A real time clock is shown at the left top corner of the screen so you don’t loose track of time while riding. It can be disabled in the configuration ini file.

Other goodies

  • When Mod activates, the time of day is changed to dawn for more daylight during your ride
  • A notification is shown when the ride is uploaded to Strava
  • A check is performed when the game loads to see if the mod is up to date or not. Try to keep it up to date.
  • The maximum latency of the server has been raised to 500ms to avoid continuous disconnections from users far from the server

Donations

We would like to remind you we have a donations page for those who would like to support the project. Thank you to every one that has already donated, your contribution is much appreciated and is helping to maintain the servers. You can see all the details in Donations