Looking at aspects of compiling, looks and performance, what is the best way to do a corner on a wall - give detail & reasons why, please :).
Walls are 8 units thick.
Visually in game, they look the same…
Which is the best to do, or does it really not matter??
I always use the first one. Don’t know which one is better.
I am not very good at this, but I’d say the second one, since it gives a straight line instead of a clipped one.
And, it takes less time to make, I use the second one in 99% of all the walls I make.
I use the 1st one, makes it easier to texture it.
I don’t think it really matters from an optimizing point of view.
hmm, the only difference i can imagine, is that the vertexed one, adds more visleafs - but i dont have a clue how they work really…
Disgaree huh?
Guess i’m wrong 
I pretty much always use the first, it looks cleaner. The 2nd one ends up with an extra face which is a bit bothersome when texturing. The first is probably more optimized because it doesn’t have that extra face but I doubt it has any impact.
If you will only see the wall from the inside it doesn’t matter. but if you can see it from outside, do the first.
Both ways are exactly the same performance wise. When VBSP runs it will merge the faces so you don’t have an extra face like in the second way.
However, the first way is harder to resize, but easier to texture.
I do the first 9/10. Unless I get lazy, then I do the second, I like the first as like people have said, texturing it is so much easier, and most times when I resize it I just use the vertex editor and pull the yellow handle I want moved.
or make two walls meet on one corner and put a small block to fill the gap between the 2 walls, textures dont need much adjustment then.
Like this?
why? That way you would just add a useless brush
There should be a way to merge adjacent brushes like the one above (provided that when merged it was possible for them to make a single brush).
You wouldn’t need the extra block to fill in the gap at all as long as both brushes meet at no less than one point.
doors too thick…
i was waiting for this.
Its the collision box.
Don’t you feel stupid now.
But when VBSP does this during compile anyway, is there really any point? And surely grouping is close enough to what would use that for anyway.
First one, as often as possible. It’s neater in the editor, easier to texture, and easier to resize if you use the vertex manipulation tool.
Brush limit.
As for the original question, it can be argued either way.
I use the first for ease of texturing.
[editline]06:42PM[/editline]
And the completely incorrect superstition that it will reduce the brushsides count.
[editline]06:42PM[/editline]
The limit I hate with a burning passion
Why bother with that little perfomance difference? We’re in 2009, computers have an average of 2 gigs of ram, and modern video cards can render millions of polygons with barely any loss of perfomance. So it’s just a preference matter.