Using Colors with Variables

Variables have long been crucial to logic and programming. Simply put, they allow the allocation and retrieval of temporary memory in various forms and can be a very present help in a wide array of applications, such as logic gates, state maintenance, or simple storage.
One of the most typical uses of variables in CueServer might be the storage of one or more aspects of show state for use in If...Then statements. There are three ways to use user-defined variables in CueServer in addition to the system, or global, variables. If you're not familiar with these, you can check out this article for a rundown.
In this article, we'll focus on how you can use them to store custom colors for use in lighting looks.
For a more in-depth technical analysis of user variables, check out the variables section of the manual.
For more on System Variables, used for setting system parameters and settings, take a look at this section.
The Scenario
In your venue, you use ambient lighting to mimic the circadian cycle indoors. To pull this off, you use timers based on the sunrise/sunset times. You must set up several cues to accomplish the changing colors throughout the day. You would like to have a better way of managing this color change than using multiple near-identical cues.
The Breakdown
The solution here is to use variables! Rather than creating multiple cues, each storing slightly different colors across the same range of channels, you can use a single cue in concert with a variable. This lets you capitalize on the powerful cue fade-engine to transition through the color changes while not having to maintain multiple copies of a similar cue. To do this, we use the same timers to trigger the change in color throughout the day, however, rather than call a different cue for each change, we simply update the color variable to the new color and allow the cue to manage the rest.
The Walkthrough
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That's all there is to it! Of course, there are endless ways to use variables in CueServer and this only covers one possible use.
Have you done anything interesting using variables in CueServer? We would love to hear about it! Let us know.