How to access avatars from filesystem?

[nirvana43]

Hello,
When avatars are stored in database, they can be accessed by :

http://website.com/forums/image.php?u=userid

But when the avatars are moved to filesystem, how they can be accessed?
Specially when this is required in 3rd party modifications, how it can be achieved?

Cheers!!

--------------- Added [DATE]1333196792[/DATE] at [TIME]1333196792[/TIME] ---------------

Nevermind.. coded my own solution but if someone knows any better way to do this then please let me know.
Below is the custom function i have coded which can return avatars when they are stored in filesystem instead of database :

PHP Code:

//Call below function for every uid
function getUserAvatar($uid = 0)
{
    $adiResult = $vbulletin->db->query_read('SELECT avatarrevision from '.TABLE_PREFIX.'user where userid='.$uid);
    if($row = $vbulletin->db->fetch_array($adiResult ))
    {
        if($row['avatarrevision'] === 0)
            $adiAvatar = 'images/default_avatar_image.jpg';
        else
            $adiAvatar = 'customavatars/thumbs/avatar' . $uid . '_' . $row['avatarrevision'] . '.gif';
    }
    else 
        $adiAvatar = 'images/default_avatar_image.jpg';

        return $adiAvatar;
} 


Cheers!!