Runway stop bars,
lit when you hold.
XPGuard shows controlled stop bars on the ground in MSFS 2020, MSFS 2024 and X-Plane 12 — automatically at every airport in the sim. When you're held short, the bar glows red. When you're cleared, the lights go off — right on the hold-short markings. Automatic Takeoff Hold Lights warn a lined-up crew when the runway ahead isn't safe for takeoff. One controller plugin drives every simulator. Completely free.
See it in action.
From the scope to your taxiway.
Three steps, scope to ground. A controller sets it in EuroScope or vatSys, XPGuard syncs, and the lights appear on the ground in front of you — stop bars, plus automatic takeoff hold lights.
Set on the scope
A controller running an XPGuard plugin — EuroScope or vatSys — claims their runways and clicks the stop bars on the ground radar to set or clear them.
EuroScope · vatSysSynced in real time
Every claim and click relays through XPGuard to every pilot connected at that airport, the same moment it happens.
Live networkLit on the ground
The XPGuard plugin draws stopbars exactly on the hold-short markings and lights takeoff hold lights down the runway ahead — red to hold, off to roll.
MSFS · X-Plane 12Built to feel like the real ground.
No lag, no reload
Set or drop a bar and pilots see it the same moment. The ground stays in sync with the controller.
Exactly where it belongs
Stop bars sit on the real hold-short positions, mapped straight onto the runways.
Drawn the light way
Lights are drawn natively by the sim, so your frame rate doesn't notice they're there.
MSFS & X-Plane
One controller plugin drives MSFS 2020, MSFS 2024 and X-Plane 12 alike — stopbars derived automatically from each sim's airport data, at every airport.
The real language
A lit red bar holds you short. Cleared, the lights go off. The same logic as the stop bars on a real taxiway.
No per-airport setup
Nothing to add or configure. The bars are already at every airport — contributors only fine-tune the rare ones that sit a little off.
Takeoff hold lights
Lined up to depart? A double row of red centerline lights warns you when the runway ahead isn't clear, then goes dark once it is. Automatic — driven by the live traffic, not switched bar-by-bar.
For the pilot, and for the controller.
Hold short like the real world
Install the plugin, fly online, and watch stop bars light up wherever the controller is working.
- Works in MSFS 2020, MSFS 2024 and X-Plane 12
- Bars are already at every airport, out of the box
- Automatic Takeoff Hold Lights warn you before an unsafe takeoff roll
- A control panel for settings and contribution
Run the ground from EuroScope or vatSys
Load an XPGuard controller plugin — EuroScope or vatSys — claim the runways you're working, and click the stop bars to set or clear them. No scenery edits, no coordination needed.
- Claim your runways
- Click a bar to set it red; click again to clear it
- Arm Takeoff Hold Lights per runway — XPGuard lights them from the live traffic
- Pilots see it instantly across the network
Works at every airport.
XPGuard derives hold-short stop bars automatically from the sim's global airport database — every airport, in MSFS 2020, MSFS 2024 and X-Plane 12 alike, tens of thousands of fields. No adding airports, no per-airport setup; it just works everywhere, out of the box.
Spot a bar that sits wrong at a field? Fine-tune it in the web editor.
Built by the people who fly it.
The stop bars are automatic, but a few sit a little off. XPGuard gets sharper when pilots and controllers fix the bars at their home airports. Here's how to pitch in.
Fine-tune a field
Sign in, open the airport by ICAO in the web map editor, nudge the auto-detected stop bars onto the right markings, and submit a correction — an admin reviews the diff and publishes.
See it in the sim
Contribution mode shows your in-progress fixes on the ground in X-Plane 12, so you can check every bar before you submit.
Test on VATSIM
Fly in VATSIM, find what's off, and tell us where a bar sits wrong.
Ready to hold short?
Download XPGuard, connect to VATSIM and fly — controlled stopbars and automatic takeoff hold lights. Free to use.