[MarkFL]

I don't know if it works the same in vB 3 as in vB 4, but in vB 4, when I want to get a user's avatar from the file system, I use code in the following form:

PHP Code:

$avatar_url = fetch_avatar_url($userid);
$avatar = $avatar_url[0];

if (!$avatar)
{
    $avatar = $vbulletin->stylevars['imgdir_misc']['imagedir'] . '/unknown.gif';
} 


edit: I forgot, you will likely need this before the call to the fetch_avatar_url() function:

PHP Code:

require_once('./global.php');
require_once('./includes/functions_user.php');