Rolla - thoughts/comments

Correct, they use Unity.

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I tried it yesterday (KICKR Core) and only lasted a few minutes. As some people in the @dcrainmaker comment section noted, the resistance is way too easy. It did seem to adjust based on the terrain, but I was in my 50/11 and spinning at 110 rpm to get a power of 100-150 W. I could not find an option to increase the baseline trainer resistance. I wonder if I need to adjust it from the Wahoo app? Second, I found the data on my phone (Pixel 5) and display (Apple TV) discordant, which was quite annoying. I didn’t know what to believe.

The UI is nice. As of now, it doesn’t look like there’s a workout creator mode.

Completely miss the core functionality of the product….but hey we made it pretty!!

:roll_eyes::roll_eyes:

My understanding is there’s a trainer difficulty setting, so it’s plausible something is up there. On the grand scheme of bugs, that’s a pretty easy one for them to sort out. Basically, it’s gonna take the next few months of lots of people finding all the things that they didn’t find in their own testing (just like it did last month when Zwift had to half rollout of their major update and apologize).

Sure, it is likely an easy fix, but when it pertains to the central experiential aspect of the program, it strikes me as….odd.

Rolla looks really interesting. Z graphics are a big turn off for me. I’d love to see a company licence AAA game worlds to make them rideable (loved that GTA V mod, such an interesting world to ride around. I could spend hours riding in that if there was a proper UI), these worlds get millions spent on making them interesting places to be. Obviously licensing them would be complex, but it doesn’t stop me wishing I could ride in GTA, Far Cry or even Cyber Punk.

Anyway, this seems like the next best thing. A proper engine that lets them develop at pace. I’ll be testing it out next time I’m riding indoors for sure.

One more thing - don’t judge it too harshly at this stage. This is clearly a beta phase and they aren’t charging for it.

It’s good to see products appearing from different places, and Rolla seems to be based in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Gives me hope for fresh ideas implemented in different ways. Also good to see the team members and their roles listed - doesn’t change the product but does give off a ā€œsmall team all working togetherā€ vibe. (Or perhaps I’m just a soft touch).

GTA V bike mod is awesome, I run my workouts on head unit and enjoy stunning graphics. In winter Christmas mod makes it even more enjoyable. I never do group rides so this Z is not for me at all.

It’s brilliant isn’t it? So simple, and it’s come a long way in the last few years.

And the best part - it’s free! You just need a copy of GTA 5 (cost about Ā£15) for a PC that can run it, which isn’t that hard since it’s a 10 year old game! Beats paying Ā£13 a month forever!

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Tried Rolla out this morning. It’s got promise, but also definitely areas it can improve in. A few thoughts:

  • The resistance level felt about right for me. Could probably be tweaked and improved, but it worked.
  • They really need to ditch the whole two device set up. Makes it so much more clunky, and with twice the possibilities for dropouts.
  • Zero chance I’m giving Rolla anytime access to location services on my phone. Not a single app gets that. Luckily I could get round it with enabling access just while using the app, but Rolla make it sound like it’s an ā€˜always on’ requirement.
  • Graphics were ok, but nothing special. Still felt old fashioned even if light years ahead of Zwift.
  • The frame rate was poor, with some stutter. Along with the point above, I think they’re running it at less than top spec at the moment, which is understandable but also takes away from its USP for me.
  • There were others in the world, both runners and cyclists. Could do with a few more but much nicer than having thousands of avatars running into each other and aimlessly riding off the road.

I’m interested to see where it goes. A solid start for a game just opening for a free beta. But they need to make it a bit slicker and ditch the phone requirement ASAP in my view.

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I couldn’t download app on my android phone. P30 lite. It’s downloaded on Atv but that’s as far as I’ve got. But it looks good

I learned (from TR, actually) that this has most likely to do with bluetooth. They don’t actually need your location, but if you use bluetooth, your location might be exposed, so they need to ask for permission for it. At least thats what I seem to remember about it.

Had a chance to try Rolla yesterday. I was expecting to run it on an Android phone and then cast to my Chromecast device, but no. It requires a secondary device with the app installed (that would be a windows laptop in my case) to work.
It is the only fitness app that I tried that has that requirement. That requirement itself renders it unusable for me.

Back to TR for the structured training combined with this guy on Youtube for a pretty environment.

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DISAPPOINTED. Couldn’t get it to connect consistently with my Elite Direto, would lose it and connect my Wahoo cadence sensor as power source. Got frustrated and gave up on it.

Best thing about TrainerRoad is it just works every time, without stuffing around trying to connect everything.

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I primarily use Zwift as a distraction during TR workouts. Even doing ā€œjustā€ Z2 rides I prefer to be in erg and not simulation mode. Based on my FTP C. Cadence pace partner is a little lower than I usually like and the next one up has too many surges into Tempo even though the overall ride ends up being high Z2. I’ll definitely give Rolla a try once they release a macOS version as I really like biking new roads, both real and virtual.

For those that like high quality You Tube videos, I recommend Bike the World. I watch these while on spin bikes during work travel. And it’s free!

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I had a go on it, worked ok seemed easy enough to set up and the ride felt ok but when I exported the workout all the distance fields was missing? They are on the app though?