[kbadr]

Can $vbulletin->GPC be accessed from a style template, though?

The reason that $_allowedvars was needed in previous versions was that there was VB code that explicitly called "deregister_globals" on anything that was not in the $_allowedvars array.

Somewhere in the new version, similar code is being executed (though not with the deregister_globals function -- I grep'd for it), because the globals I've defined are getting cleared out.