Why are taxiway lights missing in FSX, and how do I fix them?

In FSX and FSX: Steam Edition, taxiway lights usually disappear because an add-on airport replaced the default lighting data, two airport files conflict, DX10 Preview mishandles the effects, or lighting files were overwritten. Test a stock major airport after dark: if it works, fix the airport scenery; if not, repair simulator-wide settings or files.

Do FSX taxiway lights need to be switched on?

Airport taxiway edge lights are controlled by the airport scenery and time of day, not by the aircraft's light switch. At an equipped default airport, they should appear automatically around dusk and remain visible at night; pressing L only controls aircraft lighting.

Some add-on airports use their own scripted lighting or require a frequency described in the add-on documentation, but that is not normal behaviour for stock FSX airports. Also, not every real or simulated taxiway has edge lighting.

If you mean the lamp attached to the aircraft's nose gear or wing, that is an aircraft taxi light. Its panel switch, model and effects determine whether it works; the airport troubleshooting below applies to blue edge lights, green centreline lights and similar ground lighting.

How do I find what is hiding the taxiway lights?

Comparing an untouched default airport with the affected airport quickly separates an airport-data problem from a global FSX problem.

1. Set a definite night-time flight. Use clear weather and a default major airport where taxiway lighting is expected. Do not rely on twilight, when FSX's older lighting can be difficult to see.
2. Check an unmodified airport. If its lights appear, the graphics engine and core lighting files are probably working.
3. Disable the affected airport temporarily. Untick its entry in the FSX Scenery Library, restart the simulator and test again. Restarting matters because airport scenery is not completely reloaded while a flight is running.
4. Check broader scenery packages. Regional scenery, airport collections and old airport-layout files can affect the same location even when the main airport package is disabled.

How do I fix missing taxiway lights at every airport?

If stock airports are also dark, correct the rendering settings before reinstalling scenery.

1. Turn off DX10 Preview. In the display graphics settings, disable the DX10 preview option and restart FSX. This preview renderer is a common source of missing or incorrectly drawn legacy effects. Skip this step if the option is unavailable.
2. Raise the relevant detail settings for testing. Set Special Effects Detail to High and temporarily raise Scenery Complexity to Very Dense. Standard airport path lights are not normally removed solely by scenery complexity, but custom light objects may be tagged to appear only at higher levels.
3. Disable lighting and shader modifications. Restore the backups supplied with any runway-light, halo, shader or environment replacement. Change one package at a time so that the responsible file is identifiable.
4. Repair the core installation. For FSX: Steam Edition, use Steam's file-validation function. For boxed FSX, use the installation media's repair option. Back up edited stock files first because validation or repair can replace them.
5. Regenerate the FSX configuration. Close the simulator, open the active FSX profile below %APPDATA%\Microsoft\, back up its configuration file and rename the original. Depending on the installation and whether boxed FSX coexists with Steam Edition, the profile and file may use either the FSX or FSX-SE naming. Start FSX to create a clean configuration, then retest before copying any old tweaks back.

When airport surfaces, aircraft or scenery objects are also blank, transparent or unusually coloured, the problem is broader than taxiway lighting. Follow our checks for missing FSX texture files before installing another lighting package.

Why are the lights missing at only one FSX airport?

A single affected airport almost always points to its airport BGL rather than a global graphics fault. Taxiway paths in FSX contain settings for left-edge, right-edge and centreline lighting; if the scenery designer set those fields to none, no display adjustment can create the missing lights.

A replacement airport BGL is often called an “AFCAD” even when it was made with another airport-design tool. Two such files for the same ICAO code can produce mixed taxiways, displaced lights or lighting from the wrong airport version.

• Place the specific airport above broad regional scenery in the Scenery Library.
• Disable older versions and duplicate airport-layout files one at a time.
• Reinstall the full airport package if it includes separate Effects or Texture content.
• Check that an older installer did not send files to a boxed-FSX folder while Steam Edition is the installation actually being used.
• Use a corrected airport definition if the supplied taxiway paths simply contain no lighting.

Do not delete stock files such as the default APX*.bgl airport data. Disable only identifiable add-on files or scenery-library entries; removing a stock regional airport file can damage many unrelated airports.

Can replacement lighting fix invisible taxiway lights?

A replacement can improve weak halos or restore overwritten effect textures, but it cannot add lights to taxiway paths that contain no lighting definitions. First make sure stock airport lights work and resolve any duplicate scenery.

Once that baseline is working, our replacement runway and taxiway lighting download can improve their visibility. Follow its backup instructions so the original FSX lighting files can be restored if an add-on airport reacts badly.