Alrighty, after some exhaustivly tedious work, I have some info about the different modes on train. First I'll explain what I did:
I started by turning on invisibility, because that seemed the best way to make some parts consistent, and it didn't seem to cause much difference b/c the enemies still do pretty much the exact same thing as they normally do aka pile out of the doors in the hallways.
I then chose three different spots in the level that I would create Target Times for. Of course I needed to make them areas of the upmost possibility for consistency, so I chose the first hallway, the second hallway, and the path to the end.
For the first hallway, my checkpoint to start the clock was the first frame on his way going straight down the hall. Meaning, when you come through the 2nd door, there's a small area there with an angled door compared to the hallway, and you have angle to the right first, then angle back left on your way to the third breaker. My checkpoint was the first frame after the full left turn to straighten out.
I then ended the time with the checkpoint of being just past the last door on the left of the last room of the hallway. I figured this would be a good place to stop b/c I haven't quite yet started shooting the 3rd breaker.
For the second hallway, I again used the checkpoint of starting my way straight down the hallway. I also again ended just after the last door of the last room on the right.
For the ending, I started a bit after I dropped out of the vent that you have to laser to get through. I did this to make sure I was in a straight line and had full momentum to be as accurate as possible. I used a graphic marker on the ground to start the checkpoint. I ended on the first frame where the time went away.
First off the details, then I'll try to make sense of them.
NORMAL MODE, NORMAL RATIO
First Hallway:
3.17
3.18
4.05
3.24
3.13
Second Hallway:
3.22
3.16
3.22
4.01
4.08
Ending:
??? (I messed up, just ignore it
)
11.21
11.14
11.27
11.10
WIDESCREEN, NORMAL RATIO
First Hall:
3.26
4.06
3.11
4.02
3.23
Second Hall:
3.19
4.08
4.05
3.21
3.27
Ending:
11.03
11.25
11.17
11.17
11.17
CINEMA, NORMAL RATIO
First Hall:
3.15
???(again, gay messup, shouldn't be significant)
3.10
3.15
3.16
Second Hall:
4.13
4.0
4.04
3.23
4.17
Ending:
10.27 (probably messed up the checkpoints)
11.06
11.16
11.09
11.23
CINEMA MODE, 16:9 RATIO
First Hall:
3.17
3.14
3.03
3.13
3.16
Second Hall:
4.04
3.24
3.28
3.23
3.27
Ending:
11.03
11.03
11.02
11.11
11.24
NOTES:
Ok, as you can see, I did five runs in each of these four modes. I left out 16:9 ratio for normal and widescreen modes b/c I was already burnt out after these four
and I also assume these are the most important, though I could easily be wrong. I'll probably get around to doing the other two if you think that I really should after seeing the results.
I think that the most important statistic here would be the means of each hall for each mode. Doing that you'd get:
Normal:
First Hall: 3.18
Second Hall: 3.22
Ending: about 11.18 with the goof up missing
Widescreen:
First Hall: 3.26
Second Hall: 3.27
Ending: 11.17
Cinema:
First Hall: about 3.14
Second Hall: 4.04
Ending: about 11.14 w/o the 10.27 that I probably messed up
Cinema w/ 16:9 Ratio
First Hall: 3.14
Second Hall: 3.27
Ending: 11.03
Putting them in groups yields:
First Hall:
3.18
3.26
3.14
3.14
Second Hall:
3.22
3.27
4.04
3.27
Ending:
11.18
11.17
11.14
11.03
As you can see these times are quite consistent throughout the modes. You have to take account human error of course, and that unfortunately shows in my getting owned in the second hall in cinema mode :/
The first hall and the ending came up with ridiculously consistent results for each, which was nice to see.
Of course the question asked right now is, what does this tell us? I've been thinking about that, and the best I can come up with is that the modes seem to convey consistently even results. At least for train, it appears to me that there is no advantage whatsoever between modes. Now this is of course my opinion, and I hope it seems like the right one, but of course I may have overlooked something, and I still have all of the runs on my computer, so if there is something I missed, or even something that I should test, I can do so.
With respect to other levels, I've only tested archives agent, and have come up with the same results as above, consistent throughout.
I did watch the comparison vid (forgot who made it :/) of Archives SA or whatever, as well as the beginning room and such b/w cinema and normal, and the best I can say is that it is hard to use two different runs like and match them up by just putting them side by side. Human error will be too large an effect to notice, as in, he may have slapped the first guard a bit late, or strafed differently, or something of that nature.
I do believe that since cinema and widescreen do show more on the left and right sides, while keeping the top and bottom the same, may have made the conception that they must be faster, because they may be easy to use.
Another note is that it felt like there were fewer frames in the Normal mode vs. the others, b/c when I was scrolling frame to frame to get to the markers, Normal mode seemed to jump farther b/w each frame. I could just be crazy though, b/c it is a different look than the others.
For me, I like regular cinema mode for archives, b/c it helps me adapt back into the game quicker, by being able to see the walls much easier. I like Normal mode for bunker 1 agent because I have way too much trouble picking up the damn key in any other mode, plus I've played it in Normal way more than others.
I played runway agent some with cinema 16:9 and was getting consistent 23's, but I tend to just own on that level. I think the "worst" 23 I had was with 3 boosts, but I had gotten one of those way back in the early 1800's...I mean like 5 years ago when I was playing, so it really doesn't seem to mean much.
I also did use lookdown on each of the modes, to stay as consistent as possible, but I'm thinking of trying cinema or wide or 16:9 w/o lookdown to see if there's a difference at all, but I'm not expecting any.
WHEW EH? Now that you've spent an hour reading this, the formal exam will be passed out, so put your books and notes away, and come up to the front to get your exam when I call your name. The exam will last about three hours, and I hope you all die.
