A simulator for facilitating virtual orbital welding activity, comprising: a logic processor based subsystem operable to execute coded instructions for generating an interactive orbital welding environment that emulates welding setup and activity on a section of virtual pipe having at least one virtual weld joint, wherein the interactive welding environment models fluidity of a weld puddle responsive to performing the virtual welding activity in real-time; displaying means operatively connected to the logic processor based subsystem for visually depicting the interactive welding environment with also welding pixels, wherein said displaying means depicts the section of virtual pipe and further wherein the displaying means depicts fluidity and heat dissipation characteristics of the weld puddle in real-time; and wherein the logic processor based subsystem comprises welding pixel channels of information in the form of Puddle channel, Heat channel, Extra channel and Displacement channel, which contains four floating point numbers, wherein the Extra channel is treated as a set of bits which store logical information about the welding pixel such as, for example, whether or not there is any slag at the welding pixel location, wherein the Puddle channel stores a displacement value for any liquefied metal at the welding pixel location, wherein the Displacement channel stores a displacement value for the solidified metal at the welding pixel location, and wherein the Heat channel stores a value giving the magnitude of heat at the welding pixel location; a pendant for performing set-up on the at least one virtual weld joint in real time; wherein the virtual simulation environment is configured to allow two or more users to create a virtual weld in the orbital welding environment. a logic processor based subsystem operable to execute coded instructions for generating an interactive orbital welding environment that emulates welding setup and activity on a section of virtual pipe having at least one virtual weld joint, wherein the interactive welding environment models fluidity of a weld puddle responsive to performing the virtual welding activity in real-time; displaying means operatively connected to the logic processor based subsystem for visually depicting the interactive welding environment with also welding pixels, wherein said displaying means depicts the section of virtual pipe and further wherein the displaying means depicts fluidity and heat dissipation characteristics of the weld puddle in real-time; and wherein the logic processor based subsystem comprises welding pixel channels of information in the form of Puddle channel, Heat channel, Extra channel and Displacement channel, which contains four floating point numbers, wherein the Extra channel is treated as a set of bits which store logical information about the welding pixel such as, for example, whether or not there is any slag at the welding pixel location, wherein the Puddle channel stores a displacement value for any liquefied metal at the welding pixel location, wherein the Displacement channel stores a displacement value for the solidified metal at the welding pixel location, and wherein the Heat channel stores a value giving the magnitude of heat at the welding pixel location; a pendant for performing set-up on the at least one virtual weld joint in real time;