After doing some tests the past few days, it seems that 3dsmax prefers to properly display local space normal maps over tangent space normal maps. These two objects here have the exact same DirectX FX shader and grey diffuse texture. Notice how the local-space looks how it should. Has anyone else here experienced the same…
It doesn't matter what your lighting is set to if you're just rendering a single normal-map. The lighting will only matter if you're rendering a complete map including diffuse and shadows and stuff... just the RGB normal map is not affected by any lighting. I'd use a Skylight with advanced lighting turned on to get good…