VZfit Explorer Feedback

[emalafeew]

Thanks to you and your friend for spreading the word!

Getting “my rides” onto VZfit.com for sharing and editing is definitely on the roadmap. It was considered for this sprint, but we thought a 2D map in game might be more used at first. Note you can see the streetview and map view of our suggested rides on VZfit.com/stats now.

EDIT: We talked about this more today, and think web creation of rides and multiplayer rides with voice chat are right up there with a 2D map in game. We want to do all three, question is which comes first! Incidentally I've ridden the real Going-to-the-Sun road by car--it's absolutely stunning!

[surfous]

EDIT: We talked about this more today, and think web creation of rides and multiplayer rides with voice chat are right up there with a 2D map in game. We want to do all three, question is which comes first!
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I would vote for web creation of rides first solely because it facilitates crowdsourced content creation. I'd like to ride somewhere different each session, maybe repeating or reversing memorable rides after some time.

With a way to define some rides and spot evaluate the route on the web, then make the ride available to ride in Explorer, I could easily create a few rides at a time. Then after I actually ride them, I could share the ones that work out well. Maybe later, I'd have the ability to adjust rides that didn't work out well.

Finally, perhaps shared rides can become suggested rides after some sort of vetting process (number of rides completed, a rating system, staff curation, community curation?) to enhance discovery.

I *really* like Explorer, and I find that virtually riding through different areas in the world really distracts me from what would would otherwise be a dull grind on a stationary bike. Next to the scenery, I'm paying attention to the trainer and my intervals and not so much to "how much longer until I'm done?"

[emalafeew]

Awesome, thanks for the vote! That's exactly the route-making process we want for everyone.

[surfous]

Actually, just dreaming outright, it'd be very cool to be able to use the route builder that's right in Google Maps. You know, drag the start and and points, or any point in-between to specify the exact route, beginning to end. Then, an ideal would be to provide the ride creator just the sharing URL, like this: https://goo.gl/maps/ct1ewd9i6sbLCR4g7 - that might be the easiest for users while leveraging free, public Google tools for defining the route. 

Alternately, one could export the route as KML to upload. It would be easy enough to parse the three placemarks from the file to get the start, end and route waypoint list. There's just a little more onus on the user to use Google My Maps to create the route and then export the KML. 

I dunno - I'm just thinking about ways to make it easy to define and add rides that might not require building out some crazy web app to front it. 

[emalafeew]

I was thinking the same thing! Particularly the second option--exporting from My Google Maps as KML and importing into a vzfit.com/rides page, and vice-versa for rides you defined inside Explorer.

[Superlith]

Did 30 minutes of Greenland suggested ride. Beautiful views! One thing one using the explorer is that when you want to pause the ride there is no button. It is impossible to finish the whole 36 mile ride in one day. There should be easy way to pause it and to resume it the next day.

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Sorry that was Iceland ride?

[emalafeew]

Glad you like it!

You can pause and continue any number of times, even switch to another ride and resume where you left off. The compass doubles as the pause button, gaze at it with the yellow dot and press the A button to bring up pause menu.

You can also just take the headset off or exit the app to save your current state, which it will come back to when you restart the game.

I've made a bunch more little improvements to the menus and options in next build, which we'll release this week.

[Superlith]

OK, I will try. It is just not intuitive and hiding somewhere. Should be really clear for the user.

[emalafeew]

Maybe we could make the compass button pulse a bit when you are standing still, or toggle it between a compass and menu button then.

Note we show you how to press it the first time you play Explorer, it's necessary to see the startup tips and get to the main menu then.

[emalafeew]

Great news.  I have an elliptical that has Ifit and it has the ability to use Google Street view.  Only on a flat screen and in 2d, but it is a lot more enjoyable to view with no objects morphing out to look like you are on drugs.  Mostly interested in the scenery and not so much worried about 3D.

Good news for you spyder, in the upcoming Explorer release we've added a "Comfort Mode" that works like that, but in 360 and you still turn with your head.  It also forces your viewpoint to 3rd person and turns on our new Monoscopic option for Quest.  Since it's not full motion you can't use the trainer but should feel better if the scene morphing gets to you.

We've also fixed the occasional spike that could appear in morphed scenes.