thanks @Ben_Cykyria I tried the changes you mentioned but it did not fix the unresolved external symbol errors for me unfortunately. I do use a tweaked engine, so I did workaround the issue by adding the ENGINE_API prefix to those methods. However, I do not yet know why I need to do that if others do not.
So for example, the symbol error related to TextureRenderTarget2D::CanCovertToTexture(…), that method is an override from a base class. When you look at the same method declared in various classes up the chain, they all have the ENGINE_API prefix which exports the symbol. It is missing in TextureRenderTarget2D. Why the offending methods in TextureRenderTarget2D and CanvasRenderTarget2D do not have the ENGINE_API prefix like their parent classes do I do not know but seems like the general cause of the issue.
If others are not having the same problem, then I’ll have to assume that maybe my VisualStudio toolchain is out of date and a newer version can correctly traverse the symbol tree possibly? If anyone has any ideas on the matter.