A few options. You get a "cheap" one (still $2k or so) from somebody like Aimsworth... but none of the buttons & switches work, it's not to scale, and there are mispellings.
You shell out alot of bucks to RealSimulator and get a sweet, accurate simpit.
You spend not nearly as much money, electrocute yourself (at least once.. I'm kinda numb to it), and possibly remove an appendage if you have my very, very poor wood/metal working skills...and build it yourself
I'm building my own.. it's not going to be very accurate and I'm not bothering with alot of the detail work. I won't spend extra money on special switches or flame somebody because their MFD is an inch too big. Function before form. I just want working RWR, MFDs, & the important buttons, switches, & gauges to make things easier to keep track of in the furball. Got really tired of not having any info at all when in padlock view since the views are nearly as nice as AH's (doesn't snap back to front view at all).
Lots of references & stuff @
Viperpit's forums The extra screens & gauges are just 5" & 6" LCD's, like the kinds people are installing in cars nowadays. With 1 cheap PC & a bunch of PCI video cards, you can drive more than you'd need for the gauges & rwr. Working MFDs are a whole other problem since the shared memory file doesn't output their information... a workaround was just invented though for regular Falcon 4. The buttons & switches are powered by EPIC cards, Phidgets USB interfaces, or a few other obscure devices you can google for. Since the game now supports 8 controllers, you can always find a joystick with alot of buttons and butcher it.
Somebody even recently figured out how to make a working, projected HUD using a cheap 5" TV, mirror, magnifying glass, & piece of plastic. There's also methods to use multi-monitor with ATI cards on regular Falcon4.. haven't tried it under AF yet myself. Those threads are on Viperpit & Frugals.
