You can change the up axis in 3ds max. It's in the prefs. To convert pre-existing assets, a 90 degree rotation around x applied in world space is the only solution.

I search through web for changing up axis of max. Many people say, there isn't such option

here is my solution which matches all axis with opengl

-- rotate selected object
obj = $
rotate $ (angleaxis -90 [1,0,0])
a = $.pos.z
$.pos.z = -$.pos.y;
$.pos.y = a;