Advances 2007 was packed - the GPU particles intro, dynamic real-time wrinkle maps, GPU-friendly vector maps, real-time tessellation on GPU, tessellation in Viva Piñata on Xbox 360, terrain rendering from Frostbite, and many techniques from CryEngine 2.

tinyurl.com/yv7zt4n6

Advances from 2008 had also introduced the first GPU-driven pipeline and AI using compute shaders, as well as scalable GPU-driven LOD pipeline including tessellation (albeit using DX10) in the Froblins. A trip down the memory lane.

advances.realtimerendering.com/s2008/SIGGRA...

Advances from 2008 had gems like the Lighting of Halo 3 by Hao Chen, Advanced Virtual Texture from Crytek by Martin Mittring, Wavelet-based Compression by Michael Boulton, Rendering Techniques from StartCraft II and more
advances.realtimerendering.com/s2008/index....