I want to upgrade to the latest version. I’m currently running 4.16.2. I am seriously worried that projects I am working on will encounter problems after I’ve upgraded.
Simple question: Is it safe to upgrade or should I stay with 4.16.2?
Never assume it’s safe. Make a copy of your project just in case. Make a copy of your project at least once a day and back it up online. Thank me later.
Generally speaking, you want to update to a newer engine version if you are experiencing bugs that slow down or block your development. Or if you’re after a newly introduced feature you need. QoL improvements might not be worthwhile.
Again, it all depends on how advanced your project is. It may work flawlessly; you may need to spend 10h debugging to make it work; it might be beyond saving. That’s why you need a backup - worst case scenario is that you simply uninstall the newer version and continue with you old project.
The Compile Manager introduced around 4.16 or 4.17 complicated things a bit when upgrading.
As @Everynone said, make copy and try. I’m upgrading my project when new version is stable, from 4.14 or before I think, but always one version up only, from 4.16.2 to 4.19.1 can by risky, but when you work on copy only, why not. Some work for sure, I don’t know your code, but for sure you will have a lot of work with materials, because shader model changed and materials from older version in short words are darker now, but not only.