Dynamic View Mode

This module creates a dynamic view mode that gets replaced by a view mode specified in the node edit form.

How is this useful?

For example, to create views of rendered nodes that display with different layouts:

Or when rendering nodes from entity reference fields.

For a quick guide of how to use this module, see this quick tutorial. API function to set the view mode programatically is available.

Alternatives

View Mode Selector

I haven't tested View Mode Selector yet, but looks like an improved version of Entity Display Field and this module. I would give it a try.

Node Display Field

Node Display Field module allows for a node to have an independent display mode for when it is viewed as a teaser. It is very similar to Dynamic View Mode but overrides the default teaser view. The code base appears to be cleaner (uses the Field API) and the functionality more limited (e.g. default view modes can't be restricted or set on a per-content type basis)

Entity Display Field

Entity Display Field is an improved version of Node Display Field that adds support for other entity types. At this moment Dynamic View Mode only supports nodes.

Display Suite Extras

A similar functionality is provided by Display Suite Extras module, but the latter only works when the entity is displayed on its full-page view. Dynamic View Mode does not alter the Full content view mode (it creates a new one) and it does not depend on Display Suite.

View mode field

View mode field module let's you refer to view modes through a field, and then provides a Panels content pane to render entities using it.