thanks MoP I've got the settings right in the standard shader. I tried using a DX shader and it still is displaying the same errors. I'm thinking about reinstalling max. Just seems so weird that it would display everything fine except object space normal maps.
So animating an object with object space is pretty much the same as is with tanget space (leaving out the shader complexity ofcourse). Wonder why this misconception is so widespread (must be like the "triangles screw everythign up in zbrush" issue lagging on), people must have just heard about it and never actually tried…