Botanic Serenity - The First Fanmade NiGHTS Stage

Well, after one year of active production time and another year more in existence, I think I'm finally ready to say:



Welcome to Botanic Serenity.

Botanic Serenity (or "BSZ") is a NiGHTS stage for SRB2, only the third one since SRB2's NiGHTS unlockable, "Spring Hill Zone" (and the second one being purely a race). As it is a NiGHTS stage, it plays very similarly to the original NiGHTS into Dreams. Not only that, but BSZ also sports a beautiful, detailed environment, with much to see (The beta testers can back me up on this one, I'm sure!) You can fly around as Super Sonic, or aimlessly enjoy the sights! You can also hunt for the seven Chaos Emeralds, as well as a number of emblems...

Screenshots (click to enlarge):




( and for the OpenGL fans, so you all won't complain ;) )



BSZ is a very processor-intensive level. Therefore, it features three versions: "High-End", "Mid-End", and "Low-End".
BSZ High-End is the more graphically complicated version of BSZ, sacrificing speed for visuals. This is a good choice if you'd like to admire the sights, as this is what BSZ is intended to look like.
BSZ Mid-End is less graphically complicated than High-End. This sacrifices some visuals for speed. This is a good choice if you'd like to play the level at a better speed, while still viewing a pretty environment.
BSZ Low-End is the bare-bones version of BSZ, sacrificing the most visuals for the smoothest speed. This is a good choice if you'd like to play the level at as close to full speed as possible (even though it's rather ugly!).

The best way to determine which version to play is to try them all out for yourself! For the record, High-End performs ideally well on a 3.0ghz Pentium 4 (or a 2.2ghz Athlon 64) processor with 512mb of RAM.

This requires SRB2 v1.09.4 to run properly.

When you download BSZ, you'll see several files. Extract the *.wad and *.dta files all in the same directory. From there, all you need to do is load either "s_botanicserenity-highend.wad", "s_botanicserenity-midend.wad", or "s_botanicserenity-lowend.wad" into SRB2 (or run their respective *.bat files), depending on which version of BSZ you'd like to run.

Downloads:

[url]http://digiku.freepgs.com/BSZ/s_botanicserenity.zip[/url] (9.04MB)
Documentation: [url]http://digiku.freepgs.com/BSZ/s_botanicserenity.html[/url]

I can say that I put my absolute all into this one. I wanted to make my mark on this community by making something as unforeseen as a fanmade NiGHTS map, and also the most detailed environment I've ever conceived. Also, since the beginning of this project, this was intended to be my last major release in SRB2. After this, I want to concentrate on other interests of mine, such as design, as well as school. I'll still hang around, of course, though I suppose this is pretty much it from me!

Digiku, why must it be released now?! I WANTED THE TORTURE! ._.

...oh well, I can't resist anyway. *grabs*

Are you kidding? High End works fine for me in OpenGL!

Anyways, I LOVE IT. ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT.

Whoa this is good Digiku. Nice one! :D

Awesome! The first released Nights wad!

Kudos, Digiku. An effort like this won't be surpassed for a long time. We should make a statue of you.

"Digi the red-nosed reindeer, you'll go down in historyyy!"

Highend has loads of bugs D:

Ribbons in the sky, bugged up over near one of the buildings...

And what you were saying about the slowness with highend opengl, bull...

Runs full speed here...

Yays! Teh greatest level ever!

High-End is gorgeous. Absolutely beautiful. I just wish I didn't get 1FPS and below (Quite literally. I counted. =P)

You could make a download link for each type:
One for High-End, one for Mid-End and one for Low-End.
So you didn't have to download 9.04MB at a time.

That would be stupid and cause confusion, when all versions are there at once. And if you have dial-up, get a download manager. :|

Are you kidding? High End works fine for me in OpenGL!

Click to expand...

That's because you have Mouselook turned off in your 3D Card Options. If you turn it on to full, you lose 10 FPS.

When i hit the palace thing it says no axis point found and the levels ends

That's because you're not on 1.09.4 like the rest of us are. :/

Sorry, I realized that after I posted and was playing already. I just cant find the last emerald now! One question, tho. How do you have a level select for a one level modification wad?

You'll find out when you find the seven emeralds!

Also, and this is directed to everyone: I'm not sure if I made this clear enough, but the emblems are only collectable in the secret level. Five for each character, not counting the one you get when you first start the level.

The game says there are 18 emblems, but you can't collect one of them. The one you can't collect is the 7-emeralds emblem, due to a program bug (and the way I set it up in the first place). You really only need 17 emblems total to unlock ??????.

The boss is waaaay too hard, he goes where you can't hit him (behind the camera and too close to the middle) for ages at a time, meaning you don't have enough time to kill him.

Oh, and here's an ultra highend version (Digiku's permission) without the ugly barrier D:

I recommend you run it only if your pc is extremely fast, it's very very cpu guzzling (100mb+) o.o.

The barrier was put there to improve the FPS, but seeing as nothing happened to my pc when I used opengl with mouselook on in highend...

WHEEE Clicky Click!

New goal: The first fanmade NiGHTS stage that looks more like Techno Hill than Spring Hill. It is nice and all, but it isn't too unique looking.

I bugged my granparents to let me use dail-up JUST to say this rocks. Although, I had played it before.

I turned by back on SRB2 for like, 3 days, and this happens! 1.09.4! BSZ! Other stuff!

Anyways, to those of you who thought the boss was too hard, do paraloops around him when he can't be touched. that should get to him. Also, you have me to thank for those cool blue buzzes(both the sprites and their effect).