So, we can read racing numbers on a kart, but what about plate numbers on other vehicles, can we do it? Yes, we can! Some background information: Registration numbers on vehicles (presumably isKindOf “Car” only) are set depending on a map. The config params can be found in CfgWorlds:

plateFormat = "AS$-####"; plateLetters = "ABCDEGHIKLMNOPRSTVXZ";

I haven’t seen any numbers on vehicles spawned dynamically with a script, but vehicle placed in the editor have reg numbers on them. Even if vehicle has no number plate visible it still has a registration number, and we can read it. A kart for example will also have reg number as well as racing number and so is Quadbike:

I made an extension and it can be used server side to read number plates. It is not a substitute for a dedicated command, but then again, there is no way to read number plates at all, other than this way. I also wrote a function to be used with the extension:

KK_fnc_getNumberPlate = { private ["_num", "_vvn"]; _num = ""; if (_this isKindOf "Car") then { _vvn = vehicleVarName _this; _this setVehicleVarName ""; _num = "getNumberPlate" callExtension str _this; _this setVehicleVarName _vvn; }; _num }; hint (car call KK_fnc_getNumberPlate); //AST-6713

Tested it with Arma 3 stock vehicles, but no idea if it will work with custom cars and not crash or even that it all will still work in 6 months.

Download getNumberPlate_v1.0.zip

Enjoy,
KK

P.S. Putting this in vehicle init in editor would store number plate in “NumberPlate” variable on a vehicle and will make it accessible globally.

if (isServer && this isKindOf "Car") then { _vvn = vehicleVarName this; this setVehicleVarName ""; this setVariable ["NumberPlate","getNumberPlate" callExtension str this,true]; this setVehicleVarName _vvn; };