Freelancer High-Res Textures.

There's quite a few mods around now that offers high res textures, even bloom and reflections, but sadly there's no stand alone mod that only changes the original game!

You would have to download one of those mods to get a Freelancer with better graphics so it wont just be vanilla anymore...

However if it isn't a problem with modded content along with better graphics there's plenty around! Most of the major mods offers improved graphics now!

well if you prefer to keep the original the way it is, try the
Itano Circus mod for Freelancer, It focuses on graphics
and the creator really did quite well on it too.

Also try
Cross Fire 1.7 This one adds alot to Freelancer without
changing too much to the main story but it adds alot
of new stuff to it! i cant explain because of its shear
size and pure awesomeness [11] And 1.8 is on the way
too with more awesomeness! lol
Check the Freelancer Fourms for details

For a truly unique change in gameplay with intense AI
and spectacular battles try Flak 88 It's pretty fun!

But to use FL mods you need the following
Freelancer mod manager 1.31
Freelancer mod manager 1.4 beta 4

They are needed to run the mods

and here is a list to a bunch of mods for freelancer
moddb downloads section
Swat downloads section

There you go! all you need to explore the FL mods in
one big package!

Warning: don't combine big mods, otherwise your PC will explode.

Pic related:

P.S.: Itano Circus screenshots in ModDB look pretty epic.

ROFL great demonstration lol[target1]

Sorry for the gravedig but regarding hi res textures for plain old vanilla, they do actually exist. Developed by a dude called Radiant.

Download here: http://the-starport.net/module…lefile.php?cid=3&lid=2612

Some are good but they contain a very high amount of errors and cause some minor graphical problems
the ship and station textures are much more detailed with the original vanilla version