As announced modder Fakefactory released version 9.5 of his Half-Life 2 mod. The latest edition of the modification requires an installed V9 base to run. Version 9.5 of the Cinematic Mod brings real HDR Rendering to the maps of Half-Life 2. The flora is completely displayed in 3D and there are new atmospheric effects. A fixed LOD prevents objects to pop into view.

You can find the 1.6 GB big download in the 3D Center forum for example. It seems like modder Fakefactory will take a break because he thinks the Source Engine is limiting his work. Performance problems in open areas or while displaying 3D vegetation make it hard or impossible to reach better graphics. Changes made with version 9.5:

Cinematic Mod 9.5 (Snapshot-Release)

- Added true HDR maps to HL2
- Added 3D foliage to HL2 maps
- Tweaked some of the atmospheric effects in the HL2 maps
- Removed Sight-Range limits from HL2 maps
- Merged some of the very small sub-maps like town_01a, town_03, town_04, c17_02, citadel_02.
- Added HD dog (if HD addon was found during installation)