At CES 2017 HTC announced a variety of new peripherals and upgrades for their Vive VR headset, including an attachment to bring full wireless performance to the Vive, a Tracker device which can be used with a huge variety of peripheral controllers, and an improved headstrap that makes wearing and adjusting the Vive much easier (and also packs built-in audio).

After getting a chance to go hands-on with several of the upgrades at CES, I'm as excited for virtual reality as I was the very first time I strapped on the Vive. All of these new additions to Vive's ecosystem are on track for a release in the second quarter of 2017, and they represent major leaps forward for the technology that should make the coming year very exciting for fans of HTC's headset.

Wireless is real, and it's here before we expected

We all knew wireless was the obvious next step for virtual reality, and there were prototypes and rumors around every corner and at every industry event, but the announcement of an official wireless attachment coming to Vive in the second quarter of 2017 still caught many by surprise. High-level wireless virtual reality (beyond what devices like the Samsung Gear VR are capable of) will be in the hands of consumers by the summer. The glorious age of the VR backpack has ended before it even began.

What's most important about this jump to wireless VR with the Vive is that it doesn't require an entirely new headset. Like all of Vive's announcements at CES this year it will be fully compatible with the existing headset hardware, and will be offered as an optional upgrade. At the announcement event Vive representatives spoke of a desire to avoid "fragmenting" their user base, which is good news for early adopters afraid of being burned by a quick move to a "Vive 2.0" headset.

After spending untold hours with the Vive both for work and at home, the cord issue isn't something I think about very much any more...until it comes time to introduce the experience to someone new to virtual reality. That's when I inevitably have to manage the cord for them as they take their first steps, and I need to reassure them that "you'll get used to the wires." Though TPCAST's wireless solution will undoubtedly have its own headaches when it comes to bandwith, latency, and limited battery life, the fact that it will be an option at all is a huge step forward that I didn't expect to come so soon.

A whole new world of peripherals

The Vive Tracker is a small attachment about the size of a hockey puck that will work with existing Vive hardware to allow for the creation of potentially limitless new peripherals both professionally manufactured and homemade. With a universal screw attachment on the bottom and the same commitment to open design and developer-friendly hardware HTC and Valve have shown all along, the Tracker looks to be a versatile, affordable answer to the problem of overly niche VR peripherals.

At Vive's CES event the Tracker was already being used in a dozen different ways, from virtual guns to VR cameras. I had a chance to try out two different Tracker applications in the form of Master of Shapes' phone-based multiplayer VR experience and Noitom's Hi5 VR gloves, which you can see in action here:

While PlayStation VR offers a gun peripheral with limited applications and Oculus Touch controllers are still fairly new, Vive is poised to have a potentially enormous ecosystem of devices all powered by interchangeable, HTC-backed hardware. Provided developers do the necessary work to enable Tracker-based controls in their games (which is admittedly an unanswered question at this point) users will be free to buy ready-made devices or potentially customize their own, something that is sure to appeal to the tech enthusiasts and PC builders that make up a large portion of VR's early consumer base.

My time with the Noitom Hi5 gloves, which are planned to retail for less than $300, was one of the most intuitive and exciting experiences I have had with virtual reality, even though the "game" was nothing more than a small demo created for CES. After reading so much about experimental glove controllers and the finger-tracking dreams of companies like Leap Motion, it was incredible to actually be able to jump in and start using my hands—and even individual digits—to interact with virtual objects.

With no more calibration needed than making the "OK" sign my hands were in the virtual world, and I was immediately excited about the potential of experiences like Job Simulator with glove controls. Though the gloves lack haptic feedback and some games will be better suited for the traditional Vive controllers, the Hi5 controllers will offer an exciting control alternative that will dramatically improve certain VR experiences.

Just think: totally wireless Google Earth VR you control just by waving your gloved hands or making gestures with your fingers is going to be possible this summer. And I haven't even mentioned the new audio headstrap, which offers a significant improvement in terms of ease-of-adjustment and comfort. 2017 is shaping up to be a very exciting time to own an HTC Vive.

Another year playing catch-up for Oculus?

When we named the HTC Vive our VR Headset of the Year for 2016, it was with the expectation that 2017 would see much fiercer competition from Oculus, now that the Rift finally offers room-scale tracking and motion controls which are superior to the Vive's for certain games. With the technological playing field now level at last, 2017 would be a fairer contest between the PC VR titans.

But then at CES, Vive threw all our expectations out the window. Wireless VR, gun and glove peripherals with the Tracker, the Viveport VR content streaming service, and the new audio strap all gave Vive owners and fans reasons to cheer, while on the Oculus side of things...we heard nothing.

Will 2017 be another year we see the Rift lag behind the Vive? Does Oculus have a wireless attachment announcement coming soon, or will there be something similar to the eight month period during which the Vive alone offered motion controls and room-scale VR? And would Oculus even be willing to duplicate the open design of Vive's Tracker peripheral, or do they have a suite of comparable proprietary controllers waiting in the wings?

If we don't get answers to these questions very soon, we can assume the answers don't reflect well on Oculus. Vive's new upgrades will be here before we know it, and developers already have Vive's Tracker in their hands. Unless Oculus acts quickly, 2017 will be another year in which Vive leads the VR revolution.

For more VR news and hardware, visit Newegg VR Central.