Contrasting BitBlt and Direct Draw

Hey guys
excuse the possibly amateur nature of this question, but i have some things id like to know about direct draw. any graphical thing ive ever made has been using bitblt, and i never looked at direct draw because i was comfortable where i was. what i need to know is the differences in speed and ease of use. i know nothing about direct draw, and for me to take a little time to get used to it id have to know i was doing it for a decent reason. is direct draw faster and more practical for a real time game? it just seems a lot more complicated than bitblt but if it is for good reason then i may learn more about it. any pros and cons would be apreciated also. thanks alot

matt

You get extra speed (and fancy effects) for slightly more code.

You'll find that it takes a while to learn DD and use it, however once you're familiar with its use youll be able to write lots of helping functions etc. so that you can use it almost as simply as you'd use BitBlt.