Gonky Node Manager is a free Windows application that installs and manages an Automobilista 2 dedicated server from a graphical interface, with no config files to edit by hand. From today any driver can use it: until now you had to register a community on the platform, and that requirement is gone.

What it does

• Installs the dedicated server for you, or works with one you already have
• Visual editor for the whole session configuration: lengths, tyres, fuel, damage, penalties, weather, allowed aids and minimum licence
• Validates every setting against what your own server reports. An unknown attribute does not throw an error in AMS2: it silently voids the entire session configuration
• Track and class rotations, which can be changed while the server is running
• Warns you when a layout cannot hold the grid you asked for. 75 of the 230 layouts cannot fit 32 cars, and when that happens the server quietly swaps your track for another one
• Per-driver BOP: ballast plus power and drag adjustments
• Remote control from the browser, phone included, to start, stop and change track without sitting at the PC hosting the server

Why it is opening now

The change comes from looking at their own data. Of the communities registered on the platform, eight out of nine had a single member: their creator.

They were not clubs. They were people who wanted a server and followed the instructions the site gave them, which began with "create a community". The requirement filtered nothing out — it only added paperwork.

Now you sign in with Steam inside the app and pick a personal space, which is created for you with nothing to fill in.

What changes depending on where you connect it

A personal node runs exactly like a community one. Races count towards the safety rating (SR), the skill rating (GR), the licence, lap records and the driver's public history.

What it does not come with is a shop window: a personal space has no public page, does not appear in the community directory, and its room does not show in the public live timing. In the race history it appears as "user's personal server" rather than under the room name.

Four things still separate them — public page, directory, the room's own welcome message and events with sign-up — and they unlock at three members. Anyone starting alone can move their node into a community later from the settings, without reinstalling anything or losing their history.

What you need

A Windows PC switched on while people race. Automobilista 2 is not required on that machine: the dedicated server is a separate program of around 15 MB, and the app downloads and installs it.

Gonky Node Manager is available in six languages and updates itself.