Customizing number plates in Assetto Corsa is a popular way for sim racers to add a personal touch or local realism to their car collection. Whether you want to quickly change a plate through Content Manager or create a fully custom design using Photoshop, the process is accessible for both beginners and advanced modders. Methods for Customizing Plates
There are three primary ways to handle license plates in Assetto Corsa, ranging from simple built-in tools to professional texture editing.
Quick Changes via Paint Shop: For cars that support it, you can change the plate style, country, and alphanumeric characters directly in the Content Manager Paint Shop. Open the CM Showroom, navigate to the Paint Shop, and look for the "License Plate" section to adjust prefixes, numbers, and postfixes instantly.
Manual Texture Editing: For a unique design, you can manually edit the car's plate textures. These are typically stored as plate_d.dds (the visible design) and plate_nm.dds (the normal map for 3D indentation) within the car's skin folder.
Plate Packs and Resources: Many creators release regional packs, such as realistic Polish plates or Japanese plate resources, which include high-quality meshes and accurate fonts for better immersion. Step-by-Step Custom Plate Creation assetto corsa number plates
If you want to create your own bespoke number plate from scratch, follow these steps:
Locate the Files: Navigate to the car's skin folder: ~\\Steam\\steamapps\\common\\assettocorsa\\content\\cars\\.
Generate Templates (If Missing): If the skin folder doesn't have plate files, open the car in the CM Showroom. Select the license plate, go to textures, click the three dots next to the plate file, calculate AO, and save the templates.
Design in Photoshop/GIMP: Open the plate_d.dds (or a .psd template if provided) in Photoshop or GIMP. Ensure you have a DDS plugin installed to save your work correctly. Customizing number plates in Assetto Corsa is a
Export and Replace: Export your new design as plate_d.dds and the corresponding normal map as plate_nm.dds. If the original files had different names, your new files must match them exactly.
Verify In-Game: Refresh the Content Manager Showroom to see your custom plate applied to the car. Enhancing Realism with Advanced Mods
For users seeking the highest level of detail, advanced mods can add features like neon glowing plates. This requires using the Custom Shaders Patch (CSP) and editing the car's configuration files to include emissive code and intensity parameters.
| User Level | Method | Capability |
|------------|--------|-------------|
| End User | Replace skin .dds file (using Photoshop/GIMP + NVIDIA DDS plugin) | Change plate text, background, border, font, and country code. |
| Modder | Edit 3D model in Kunos editor (or Blender with KS Editor) | Reshape plate size, position, reflections, and assign a dedicated material slot. |
| Server Admin | No direct control | Cannot force or validate custom plates on client machines; each user sees their own local skin. | The Easy Way: CSP "License Plate" App If
Step for basic custom plate (end user):
assettocorsa\content\cars\[car_name]\skins\[skin_name]\car_body.dds or ext_carpaint.dds).If this sounds too complex, CSP includes a real-time app. While driving, open the right-side apps panel (mouse to right edge of screen) and find the "License Plate" app. This allows you to type any text in real-time and it will update the plate immediately—no config files required. However, these changes do not save permanently across game restarts unless you use the ext_config method.
When sim racers talk about immersion in Assetto Corsa, the conversation usually starts with force feedback physics, laser-scanned tracks, or the roar of a Ferrari V12. However, for the dedicated modder and the realism purist, the devil is in the details. One of the most overlooked, yet transformative, aspects of car customization in Kunos Simulazioni’s masterpiece is the Assetto Corsa number plate.
Whether you are building a Japanese drift missile, a classic British touring car, or a modern German Autobahn cruiser, the license plate (or number plate) is the final touch that turns a generic 3D model into your car. In this article, we will dive deep into how number plates work in Assetto Corsa, where to find custom plate mods, how to install them, and how to use tools like Content Manager and Custom Shaders Patch (CSP) to push realism to the absolute limit.