On Fri, 27 Jun 2025 11:35:03 +1200, I wrote:
This is all fine, except I wonder what’s going to happen to the file format. Because the field for holding the major version number only has room for one digit.
Welp, we have an answer ... Blender 5.0 is introducing a change to the file format. Gory details here <https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/src/branch/main/source/blender/blenloader_core/BLO_core_blend_header.hh>, but basically there are now 2 digits for the major version number, plus provision for further extensions to the file header. This and other changes mean older versions of Blender won’t be able to open files created by the new version. I gather 4.5 (the current version) has some forward compatibility to get around this, but only partially. Blender 5.0 is scheduled to go final before mid-November.