I did this for testing:
void surf (Input IN, inout SurfaceOutput o) {
float3 viewN = mul ((float3x3)UNITY_MATRIX_IT_MV, o.Normal);
o.Albedo = viewN * 0.5 + 0.5;
o.Emission = viewN * 0.5 + 0.5;
}
Have applied it to a sphere, and if it was view space normals then the colors of the sphere should be the same no matter where you view it from right? They're not. Also rotating the sphere changes the color of it.