How to Enable Legacy Nodes in Blender
Legacy nodes allow you to continue using Blender 2.93 nodes in Blender 3.0 and beyond. To turn on legacy nodes in Blender, find the Preferences option under the Edit dropdown and select it.
Under Interface, you’ll find a checkbox labeled Developer Extras. It’s more than just a tantalizing name—toggle this option on, and you should see a new tab appear at the bottom to your left: Experimental. Things are about to get very interesting.
From here, the way forward will be very obvious. Check the box for Geometry Nodes Legacy, and you’re ready to rock and roll. Hop into the Geometry Nodes workspace and add a new node with Shift + A. Some stacks won’t have changed much. Others, however, will be full to the brim with tons of new options for you to explore.
Why Geometry Nodes in Blender Are Useful
Blender 3.0 marked the beginning of a completely novel era in the way of geometry nodes in Blender. The list featured in the official release was pared away greatly from what the previous demo version had to offer. The line was drawn in the sand, and a lot of cool stuff was unfortunately left behind.
Legacy nodes are your way of grabbing that one perfect node that you used to do everything with. They’re also really awesome when you’ve exhausted all the official Blender 3.0 geometry nodes and are running yourself up the wall trying to find a solution.
One really neat thing about Blender is how community- and artist-driving its development is and remains to this day. In fact, you can actually follow an ongoing effort on the Blender developer hub to improve, redesign, and convert the best legacy nodes and outfit them for a restored position amongst the rest of Vanilla Blender for future Blender releases.
Enable Legacy Nodes in Blender 3.0
It’s an interesting intersection of needs and talent to witness—what’s indispensable to an artist might be totally forgettable from the perspective of the person building the software, and vice versa. This collaborative process serves as a testament to why Blender is so deeply loved by 3D artists everywhere.
