PCLaunch.rc / Building Actions takes over 15 minutes on simple project

Visual Studio 2017 stays stuck in this stage of building the project for a very long time.
While stuck like this, barely and CPU cycles or memory is being used by visual studio.
If I wait long enough, eventually it finishes. But this can take up to 15 minutes.

1>------ Build started: Project: PluginProject, Configuration: DebugGame_Editor x64 ------
1>Creating makefile for PluginProjectEditor (no existing makefile)
1>Performing full C++ include scan (no include cache file)
1>Using Visual Studio 2017 14.13.26128 toolchain (C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Professional\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.13.26128) and Windows 10.0.16299.0 SDK (C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10).
1>O:\SVN\OctaneUnrealUpgrade\OctaneUnreal\Plugins\OctanePlugin\Source\OctanePlugin\OctanePlugin.Build.cs : warning : Modules must specify an explicit precompiled header (eg. PrivatePCHHeaderFile = "Private/OctanePluginPrivatePCH.h") from UE 4.21 onwards.
1>O:\SVN\OctaneUnrealUpgrade\OctaneUnreal\Plugins\OctanePlugin\Source\OctanePluginEditor\OctanePluginEditor.Build.cs : warning : Modules must specify an explicit precompiled header (eg. PrivatePCHHeaderFile = "Private/OctanePluginEditorPrivatePCH.h") from UE 4.21 onwards.
1>Parsing headers for PluginProjectEditor
1>  Running UnrealHeaderTool "O:\SVN\OctaneUnrealUpgrade\OctaneUnreal\PluginProject.uproject" "O:\SVN\OctaneUnrealUpgrade\OctaneUnreal\Intermediate\Build\Win64\PluginProjectEditor\DebugGame\PluginProjectEditor.uhtmanifest" -LogCmds="loginit warning, logexit warning, logdatabase error" -Unattended -WarningsAsErrors -installed
1>Reflection code generated for PluginProjectEditor in 10.1492027 seconds
1>Building 22 actions with 12 processes...
1>  [1/22] PCLaunch.rc
1>  [2/22] PCLaunch.rc
1>  [3/22] PCLaunch.rc

Hi, have you solved your problem now? I met the save issue may be several months ago and no solution was found, please post your answer if you have any suggestion or even some assumptions.

I ended up doing the following:

  • Stopped using a network drive.
  • Upgraded to new version of unreal
  • Made a clean svn checkout in a new folder

Not sure what did the trick.

I found a solution that seems to work:
https://forums.unrealengine.com/development-discussion/c-gameplay-programming/108014-is-c-really-this-slow-in-unreal-4?p=918034#post918034

I started having this issue shortly after upgrading my visual studio: VS 16.8.3 and UE4.26.0.

I downgraded to an earlier version of visual studio, made a clean checkout, and tried UE4.24.0 and the problem was solved for a couple builds; but then came back.

My guess is the new Visual Studio is doing something stupid and Unreal has yet to compensate for it.