Zwift Richmond route update in 4K screenshots: Triathlon Forum: Slowtwitch Forums

Zwift Richmond route update in 4K screenshots

Feb 26, 20 16:09

In 2016 when so few people were on Zwift riding with "ghost riders" (blue AI avatars) were a norm. Back then, there were only 2 courses to choose from: the original Watopia, and a shiny new Richmond UCI course. Fast forward to 2020, Watopia grew exponentially and got many visual updates along the way, but the dusty Richmond has been neglected and, at least for me, completely written off.

When I logged back in two weeks ago I got a pleasant surprise. Richmond course had been totally overhauled!

Not just a few building here and there, but almost an entire new city has been erected. So, I dug in to see if I had some old screenshots from 2016 to compare to 2020 and found one. This is a side-by-side screenshot of the same corner of Richmond and the difference is striking:

Riding the fresh new Richmond made me excited all over again. Turns out, it wasn't really the elevation profile or it being relatively short that turned me off, but the fact that compared to other Zwift worlds, this one felt old and boring.

I couldn't upload the full screenshots here due to file size upload limitations, but I did post a ton more Zwift Richmond 4K screenshots here:

https://www.cake.co/...te-in-4k-screenshots

What do you think of the update? And yes, you can now ride Richmond course in reverse. Nice work, Zwift!

In case you missed, here are some 4K screenshots of the Zwift Yorkshire and Zwift Titans Grove

Last edited by: Vilen: Feb 26, 20 16:10

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Re: Zwift Richmond route update in 4K screenshots [Vilen] [ In reply to ]

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zedzded

Feb 26, 20 16:36

Post #2 of 10 (2252 views)

Vilen wrote:

I'm relatively new to Zwift, how does it compare now to when it first started out?

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Re: Zwift Richmond route update in 4K screenshots [zedzded] [ In reply to ]

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Vilen

Feb 26, 20 16:47

Post #3 of 10 (2233 views)

The original Richmond UCI route was modeled after 2015 UCI Road World Championship held in Richmond, Virginia. We could only ride it one way and there were no other routes available to choose from in Richmond. So, after the novelty of it wore off, and riding in circles became boring I moved on to ride mostly Watopia and London routes. In those worlds you could easily turn around or take a turn.

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Re: Zwift Richmond route update in 4K screenshots [Vilen] [ In reply to ]

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echappist

Feb 26, 20 16:56

Post #4 of 10 (2219 views)

it certainly looks nice, but I can't help feeling that it's wasted somewhat, so to speak. The course shows up maybe 2x/month.

I would actually like an avatar shadow rider to duplicate the feel of a group ride. But that's just me

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Re: Zwift Richmond route update in 4K screenshots [echappist] [ In reply to ]

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Vilen

Feb 27, 20 8:48

Post #5 of 10 (2048 views)

echappist wrote:

it certainly looks nice, but I can't help feeling that it's wasted somewhat, so to speak. The course shows up maybe 2x/month.

That was the feeling I had before riding the new course. I thought why bother updating a course that rarely is being used and one that is pretty boring. But after thinking some more it seems like it was much easier and cheaper from development perspective to revamp an old course than to build a brand new one. The course is already tightly integrated within Zwift, and pretty much all of the assets in the update have already designed and reused from other courses. The end result is a freshly looking route with up to date graphics that is actually rideable in any direction.

To me this update is a low hanging fruit.

Thoughts?

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Re: Zwift Richmond route update in 4K screenshots [Vilen] [ In reply to ]

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Herbert

Feb 27, 20 13:30

Post #6 of 10 (1962 views)

Looks also like different time of day / sun position. My big screen is not 4k but pretty hi res and the screen shots look ace.

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Re: Zwift Richmond route update in 4K screenshots [Vilen] [ In reply to ]

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lightheir

Feb 27, 20 14:08

Post #7 of 10 (1941 views)

I personally would like to see another smallish world that's totally bonkers, just for kicks. Like the weirdest parts of Watopia, on steroids. Might be too nuts for everyone, but I like the weirder parts of Watopia a lot more than the faux-realistic courses they have, which frankly just bore me.

Ideas - riding through waterfalls, getting chased by tribal warriors running on roadside with spears, more dinosaurs and big animals, riding on the MOON (or other space warp feature) - that would really interest me!

I'm just 'meh' with another faux-realistic course - but they are well done for what they are and I could see how some would prefer them.

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Re: Zwift Richmond route update in 4K screenshots [zedzded] [ In reply to ]

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gregtay

Feb 27, 20 18:34

Post #8 of 10 (1891 views)

zedzded wrote:

Vilen wrote:

I'm relatively new to Zwift, how does it compare now to when it first started out?

Well in the early beta days it was a few of us riding the only road.. a 3 mile loop in Watopia (which I think they just called Zwift Island)...I remember doing a century ride which got a little dull but it was stormy outside but still more entertaining than staring at a wall. It is amazing to see how far everything has come.

______________________________________________
Team Zoot

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Re: Zwift Richmond route update in 4K screenshots [lightheir] [ In reply to ]

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JoelO

Feb 27, 20 19:26

Post #9 of 10 (1868 views)

I’m with you on that. My go to course is Watopia. Richmond and London bore me. Innsbruck is visually pretty interesting.

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Re: Zwift Richmond route update in 4K screenshots [Vilen] [ In reply to ]

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damon.lebeouf