I remember reading on Resident Evil Wikia a while back that the Mediakite version was faster than the Sourcenext version. I also remember hearing somewhere that runners were preferring the Mediakite version for door skipping at one point. It seemed like Mediakite was the better version for speedrunning. Could someone fill me in on the how and why Sourcenext came to be preferred, please? Is it because of better compatibility with modern machines? What benefits does the Sourcenext version have/what demerits does the Mediakite version have?
Thanks!
They're exactly the same, pretty much.
Mediakite is just the Japanese version of Platinum. I have no idea how the versions were released and in what order with this game, but they're literally identical besides the JPN/US differences. They even have the exact same crash points.
Main difference is, Mediakite/Platinum have several game breaking bugs related to crashes in both B scenarios and in Claire A -- literally only Leon A works consistently.
Sourcenext is just better, in short. Running Mediakite would essentially be running an "unpatched" buggier version of Sourcenext. And look how much of a pain it is for some to run Sourcenext already. It's also unproven to actually be faster, or at least, I've personally yet to see actual evidence.
Thank you for sharing. I had heard that only the Mediakite version allowed you to skip doors, but, as you said, if they're both the same then I guess the Sourcenext version allows you to skip doors also?
MediaKite is essentially what Sourcenext based their port off of, but made it more accessible and stable for modern machines. MediaKite is very much playable it just has its share of bugs that the Platinum version was riddled with such as scenarios freezing near the end (the game is actually still running in this state lol). The only way to prevent the freeze is to play the game in full screen at or before the moment the freeze occurs, then you can swap back to window mode or whatever resolution you choose. There are definitely some notable differences with MK vs Sourcenext. I personally think the colors look better on MK compared to Sourcenext's release. As for which version is faster, MK feels a lot more smoother to me overall. Frame counts need to be tested for MK, but even then I don't think MK would be accepted mostly for the bug issues pointed out.
