Reflate or Preflate? Both on paper serve the same purpose but if you're not sure which one to pick, you first need to know that reflate is typically faster and processes more obscure streams than preflate.
If it is speed that you're after, use reflate.
On the surface reflate seems to have no flaws then? It does it is sometimes prone to errors so if you encounter crc errors after using reflate, switch to preflate and on some data, reflate provides the worst ratio compared to preflate, fast as it is sometimes it is better to go with preflate so how to decide? In the more recent xtool updates, patching sizes were included for you to gauge whether patching is worth it or not so pick any file from the game with zlib streams and process one with reflate and one with preflate and you get results shown below as an example:
-mreflate
Code:
Streams: 496 / 510
- reflate:l6 = 503 (45,56%)
Patched: 503 (45,2 MB)
Size: 665 MB >> 1,17 GB
-preflate
Code:
Streams: 496 / 510
- preflate = 503 (45,56%)
Patched: 503 (37,5 MB)
Size: 665 MB >> 1,16 GB
We take a look at the patched part and here, you have to pick whichever provides the
smallest patched size if you're after ratio or just go with reflate if you just want the speed and the size isn't that different.