Oculus Rift buys out hand-tracking VR tech company

Oculus Rift's virtual reality empire has grown thanks to the acquisition of Nimble VR.

Nimble VR, formerly known as 3Gear Systems, is behind a very promising piece of skeletal hand tracking tech. In conjunction with a VR headset, this tech could power some very cool effects - like gestural controls. Imagine reaching out to turn a lever in the game world, for example. (This would be especially cool with Bristol University's new VR haptic feedback system, so you could feel the lever, too.)

The acquisition of Nimble VR was one of three announcements Oculus Rift made today. It has also purchased 13th lab, which is working on a 3D reconstruction framework. This could be leveraged to efficiently recreate real world spaces and objects, taking some of the effort out of environmental design.

Finally, leading motion capture expert Chris Bregler has joined Oculus Rift. I don't know whether his expertise will be leveraged to help capture performances for use as assets in projects, or in improving how VR devices track user movements, but both are exciting prospects.

VR gaming, friends; it's happening. Thanks for all the money, Facebook!

Thanks, GamesIndustry.