Well, I stumbled across this forum during a random Google search and I felt like sharing something with this place. A good while back, Volition did the very best thing they could have done other than a full blown FS3: They released FS2's source code. With that, users were given the power to modify, tweak, and improve the game at the root level. The result is the Freespace 2 Source Code Project.

Here's just a bit of what's been accomplished so far:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/anandraj/sm1-10.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~cp5670/FS2-2.jpg
http://fs2source.warpcore.org/wmcscreenies/desperation/planetview.jpg
http://server2.uploadit.org/files/Ulala321-screen0037.jpg
http://web.njit.edu/~pjo3/heck1.jpg

Here is the official site with all the necessary downloads and links so you can have all this in your game:
http://scp.indiegames.us/news.php

And since installing everything can be rather confusing the first time around, here's a nice walkthrough:
http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~freespace/fsdoc/index.php?pagename=Downloading%20and%20Installing

Feel free to ask any questions and I'll see what I can do. Alternatively, you can check out the official forums and ask there:
http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~freespace/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=50

Happy gaming!