problem with nodes

i’m still new to this nodes thing but i can’t get things work for me !!! like i can’t find shaders in my nodes settings


but here this pic for my opening nodes settings from another blend file i downloaded and i found them


what’s the problem ??

You are using the blender render engine rather than the cycles renderer. Change render engine from the drop down list at the top of the blender interface

isn’t cycles the default render engine since 2.7x ?? btw thanks for pointing that

Question is are you trying to use Cycles nodes or BI nodes? If Cycles, then you need to switch the mode to Cycles like Richard said. (I think this is the one you’re trying to do, based on the second image.) Remember, unless you change the default file, Blender currently defaults to Blender Internal.

If you are interested in using BI nodes, kind of like what Kent Trammell did in his latest CG Cookie post, then all you have left out is the step where you specify which material you want to use. In the material node box, you’d either select a previously created material slot or click new to start a new one.

I think the first is what you want. If you plan on just using Cycles and not BI, one thing you can do is to open a “new” file, make the switch to the Cycles render mode, and then press Ctrl-U (or choose Save Startup File from the File menu) to save the change in the start up so that when you start a new file, it will already be set to Blender.