I hit the "Create Material" button in 3ds max 2012. It opens up the Sandbox Editor material browser. I click "Add New Item" because it doesnt ask me where to save. I save a new file as "XXXX.mtl", then it pops up the new material with no additional ID's and shows no proxy. Im not sure what Im doing wrong.

in 3ds Max, did you set the shader type to 'Crytek', tick the 'physicalize' checkbox, and choose 'no draw' from the dropdown menu?

I did all of that and it still didnt work, but heres the kicker..... I tried another way of doing it that I learned through a video toot that someone made on here that all you have to do is link the geometry to a dummy helper and just export the dummy. The geometry will follow and guess what...it did

good news!

yes, using a dummy, even for static geometry is the way forward. It will also help you to bypass CE3 polygon limit of 60,000 per mesh... you can attach several objects to the dummy, which may total over 60,000 polys.

as you probably know, the heirarchy is

dummy>object meshes>proxy meshes

Yes, I learned that as well....this is the brilliant guy I learned it from http://www.crymod.com/viewtopic.php?f=315&t=75811

I guess were still waiting on a true glass material? Im proficient in 3ds Max, but a noob when it comes to the "Cry"Engine

Thanks for the help!

his Eat 3d level design tutorials are good value too, at USD 100

I've got another USD 100 for the next set, hopefully he'll release them soon

I found this thread via google and I'm having a similar issue- I've done everything I can see right but my proxy still won't load and my material slots in CE don't show up with a sample (the material's there, but it doesn't show the sample). Also, I have to finagle with the "apply material" button to even get it to show up at all on the selected object.

Here's my process:
- made asset (group of various shapes, pillar/attached lamp/etc)
- applied EditablePoly over the whole group, set ID of group to 1
- copied pillar group (ctrl+v)
- changed ID to 2
- went to material editor, made Multi/Sub-Object material
- set first material to Crytek shader, loaded diffuse tiff
- set second to Crytek shader (checked physicalize, Physical Proxy No Draw)
- applied the material to the base object and the copy to use as a proxy
- named the proxy object "$physics_proxy_pillar"
- connected both render mesh and proxy mesh to a dummy
- clicked export
- exported material (all saved in the same folder, Game>Objects>Test01)
- went to CE, placed mesh, but when I go to assign the material, first it makes it invisible, then the red "replace me," then when it finally shows up my diffuse the proxy collision isn't there (I can walk right through it still).
I went through that same tutorial you were looking at and one from Simon Fuchs, one of the artists at Crytek and all my steps seem right, but for some reason it's not working. I thought installing the 3.4.0 version would help, but it's got the same problem. Can anyone offer any insight? The project I'm working on is due this Monday.

EDIT: Looking around some more- should I just use the four basic primitives to create the proxy field, rather than and exact duplicate of my object? I don't know if that what's causing the issue...

check that you have navigated back to the top level of the 3ds Max material editor before you 'create material'

also double check that the material's name is the same as your object name, and save the MTL file in the same folder as your geometry file. And that your MTL file is named the same as the head name in 3ds Max

I hope this solves

Everything you mentioned checks out. There is still no collision. But for all intents and purposes (at least to my knowledge), I've done everything correctly.

Remove the $ symbol, that could affecting it.
For proxy geometry, its usually better to create a very simple version of the original mesh with significantly lower poly count.

I tried that will three boxes and the proxy still won't work (and I only just added in the $ to the name, I've tried it both ways and they both have the same result)

You are hitting the create material button when the top-level of the material in the material editor of max is selected right? Just to rule that out.
So you have the physics slot, actual render texture slot etc visible.

Also thinking perhaps the physics mesh could be misaligned. In the console of the editor type p_draw_helpers 1. See if it appears anywhere nearby. If it does, adjusting the pivot to the same location of the rendermesh should align it.

I've had this issue with 3DS Max also. Following several tutorials yields no success. Everything mentioned here has been tried, nothing seems to be working (dummy aside).

perhaps take a video of going through your export workflow

it is a fiddly, annoying procedure... but in my experience there is always a logical, irritating reason why it doesn't work

Yes I always select the top parent in the material stack, and yes the physics slot is there, it says there's a proxy, but I can still walk through the object.

What is the console of the editor? Where is that?