The latest indieVelo update V0.2.12 released August 28, 2023, includes innovative Event Organization support and Virtual Gearing.
Events are at the heart of what makes online cycling so special to us all. It’s not a surprise that many of the requests people make for indieVelo’s development revolve around helping make amazing events for everyone to ride in.
This week’s release (full details below) focuses on several key features that deliver just that – for example, the ability for organizers to add event branding to the virtual world, team name codes for easy identification of team members/rivals when riding, and a commissaire mode to allow the organizer and officials to remove riders live during an event if needed.
Event Organization
Although indieVelo does not intend to organize major events, the aim is to provide the tools and support needed for others who want to do that, to flourish and do what they do best. That requires lots of experimenting to see what works and what doesn’t. Still, there is now a wide variety of test events happening on indieVelo from independent organizers to see what’s possible and generate ideas for new ways to extend indieVelo in the future; for example:
- The Monday Malarky series features human-only events with fields regularly of around 50 riders.
- The Foudre Omnium series has back-to-back points, time trial, scratch, and elimination races on Wednesdays with mixed bot & human fields that push everyone hard.
- The OTR TTT series showcases team time trials held at a time of your choosing over a different course each week for maximum convenience.
This Tuesday also sees the start of a test 4-day Stage Race with the Chase The Yellow event on August 29th, 31st & September 5th, and 7th, including GC / Sprint / Climb classifications and multiple different timezone slots.
Check out the in-game event roster for details on these and the many other events to ride.
Virtual Gearing
This week’s release also includes Fully Configurable Virtual Gearing. The feature acts as a virtual cassette, allowing you to increase/decrease the resistance as you ride without shifting physical gears. You’ll have more flexibility to ride how you want, for example:
- With a single-speed bike without being limited by the gradient of the terrain.
- With an MTB, simulate larger gears than you physically have.
- With the same bike for multiple users without changing rear wheels.
- With cheaper components on a bike, because you don’t need to physically shift cleanly.
- With lower maintenance of your bike, from not needing shifting at all.
- With increased drive-chain efficiency by having a straight chain line.
- Or you want to ride with bigger gears for a harder workout than the terrain provides!
Select any gears you like in the virtual cassette, and use the -/+ hotkeys to change virtual gear whenever you want.
If all has gone well, you shouldn’t have to do anything to get the new version, as indieVelo will self-update the next time you start it up. If you find any problems, however, instructions on how to manually update are on the website: https://wiki.indievelo.com/docs/updates
Please note that, depending on when you installed indieVelo, you may see a warning message recommending that you update the installer/launcher to the latest version. If you see this, download it again from https://indievelo.com/downloads, and the update will automatically apply. The entire process typically takes a minute or two, often much less.
The full patch notes are below!
Also Read: How-to organize your won even…indieVelo—Creating an Event!
“As ever, this and all the other additions and improvements in this release have come from your suggestions. With 100% of indieVelo’s roadmap decided by the community, please do keep your ideas coming for what you would like to see and how you would like indieVelo to continue to grow and develop. Many thanks again for your continued support!”
indieVelo founder Dr. George Gilbert
Patch Notes – V0.2.12 – Key changes from the last version:
- Added ability for organizers to brand in-world objects, such as arches.
- Added commissaire mode to allow an observer to exclude riders during events.
- Added ability for organizers to exclude riders during their own events.
- Added short 3-4 letter team name codes to various places throughout.
- Added fully configurable virtual gears (hotkeys -/+).
- Added full support for Stages SB20 extended features.
- Added lots more teams.
- Improved player search results to include their active team name.
- Improved broadcast API to give player details while in pens.
- Improved broadcast mode to be able to switch focus while in pens.
- Improved resilience of client to network errors.
- Improved logging of client-server connections / disconnections.
- Improved disallowed word filter.
- Fixed bug with CSV export of results when in non-English locales.
- Fixed bug with calculation of bot TSS values when they’re training.
Semi-retired after more than 20 years as the owner and director of a private Orthopedic Physical Therapy practice, Chris now enjoys the freedom to dedicate himself to his passions—virtual cycling and writing.
Driven to give back to the sport that has enriched his life with countless experiences and relationships, he founded a non-profit organization, TheDIRTDadFund. In the summer of 2022, he rode 3,900 miles from San Francisco to his “Gain Cave” on Long Island, New York, raising support for his charity.
His passion for cycling shines through in his writing, which has been featured in prominent publications like Cycling Weekly, Cycling News, road.cc, Zwift Insider, Endurance.biz, and Bicycling. In 2024, he was on-site in Abu Dhabi, covering the first live, in-person UCI Cycling Esports World Championship.
His contributions to cycling esports have not gone unnoticed, with his work cited in multiple research papers exploring this evolving discipline. He sits alongside esteemed esports scientists as a member of the Virtual Sports Research Network and contributes to groundbreaking research exploring the new frontier of virtual physical sport. Chris co-hosts The Virtual Velo Podcast, too.
