Given that we are still working on the 4.7 upgrades, and the going is slow because of having a lot of other work to do, I would say that the answer is that we would upgrade to 4.8 ‘as soon as possible’, but that we cannot guarantee any particular date. Fortunately the community is pitching in , and upgrades are being posted by community members before NV is able to publish our own.
Regarding the mainline engine integration, it is Epic’s decision, and I’m sure they have many competing interests to balance.
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