Your first MSFS flight

Review your MSFS settings before using these controls.

Seeing the lights

Lights render only below ~1,000 ft AGL - above that the app idles and draws nothing. The dark fixtures appear on their own; the controller-driven red needs you connected to VATSIM. Amber IHP lights mapped ON in Non-LVP show even without VATSIM.

1. Open XPGuard first, then start MSFS. With Suppress scenery lights on (the default), wait until preparation finishes, then use Launch MSFS. If you installed or updated while MSFS was running, restart it once.
2. Check your scenery. The status card should show the detected scenery with Publisher matching. If not, hit ⟳ Refresh or pick the right one - see Scenery & publisher.
3. Connect to VATSIM with vPilot. Bars only light while you are online - offline you see the dark fixtures only. If the VATSIM row does not pick it up, switch on Force.

Lit - red means hold short

Dark

A dark light is never a clearance

Dark only means XPGuard sees no restriction. Your clearance always comes verbally from ATC. This is true of stop bars, THL and REL alike.

No controller, no lights

THL and REL come entirely from the controller’s ground-radar picture. A stop bar with nobody online stays dark too. With no controller - or none with that light armed - you see nothing. That absence is not an all-clear.

Nothing showing?

Check in this order:

• Connected to VATSIM
• Below ~1,000 ft AGL
• MSFS connected (top of the app)
• The package in your Community folder
• A controller online

For what each light means and how much of a THL/REL array lights up, see The lights.