A VR panorama in its native form is a still image, not a video as some people may think. In order to view the panoramic image interactively, you need to utilize a panorama viewer. It is this viewer that handles the manipulation of the panoramic image, allowing you to:

• pan around, up or down
• zoom in and out
• clickable "hot spots", and other elements of interactivity
• layers containing additional images, maps, video or text
• playing sound
• directional controls
• adjustments of the image's dynamic range
• lens flares and other calculated effects
• and several more depending on the viewer used

There are many methods currently for displaying/viewing interactive VR panoramas. These "players" use a variety of technologies such as Apple's Quicktime, Adobe's Flash or Shockwave, Java and even some OpenGL viewers that take special advantage of high performance video cards. Some of these players support more computing platforms than others, and some or more popular than others for a variety of reasons.

A list of the more commonly used panorama viewers are shown below. For more information about a particular viewer, click on its name: