hmmmm, that doesn't sound as if they got those 'lightmaps' from the .X format itself as it's not capable of storing that sort of data (as far as I know). It sounds like what they've done is collect all their assets together into a quake 3 map and then compiled the results, from which they've export the lightmaps out to…
When you say the model looks naff exported out to .x what do you mean by that? It's not carrying any vertex painting or the UVWs are getting messed up? What other formats does Basic support? Maybe try using a different format for any static objects (none animated)
Are you sure that Basic is supposed to be able to interpret Max's light objects? You might find that they're used as 'helpers' so the file your exporting is probably okay but the engine isn't picking and interpreting the data properly. Your best bet is going to be to export the models or scene out to ASE and then do a bit…