Unable to draw MKPolylineView long shift +/- 180

Question

I have a problem displaying MKPolylineView on MKMapView. The line is a journey around the world that begins and ends near New York, always traveling east. One stage of a trip from Japan to San Francisco crosses the Pacific Ocean and, therefore, a longitude of +/- 180. MKPolylineView connects these two points, but moves in the wrong direction. That is, the line goes west from Japan back to San Francisco, and not east through the Pacific Ocean. I do not see any option that allows me to indicate the direction in which the line segment should move in order to connect the two points.

Simply put, MKMapView does not seem to understand that the world is round. Is there a way that I can draw a line for my destination, traveling east from Japan to San Francisco?

I have a screenshot that clearly shows the problem:
Polyline http://www.builtlight.org/pub/MKPolylineView.png

Answer 1

This is apparently a limitation of MKMapView.

The workaround is to split the +/- 180 transition into the "eastern" and "western" parts.

For a trip around the world (finish == start), you can place the "western" part of the intersection in front of the polyline.
For instance:

CLLocationCoordinate2D newYorkCoord = CLLocationCoordinate2DMake(40.7141667, -74.0063889);
CLLocationCoordinate2D londonCoord = CLLocationCoordinate2DMake(51.5, -0.116667);
CLLocationCoordinate2D japanCoord = CLLocationCoordinate2DMake(36, 138);
CLLocationCoordinate2D sanFranciscoCoord = CLLocationCoordinate2DMake(37.775, -122.4183333);

CLLocationCoordinate2D japanToSFMidpointEast;
//use average calc as crude way to find midpoint...
japanToSFMidpointEast.latitude = (japanCoord.latitude + sanFranciscoCoord.latitude)/2.0;
japanToSFMidpointEast.longitude = 180;

CLLocationCoordinate2D japanToSFMidpointWest;
japanToSFMidpointWest.latitude = japanToSFMidpointEast.latitude;
japanToSFMidpointWest.longitude = -180;

int pointsCount = 6;
CLLocationCoordinate2D *points = malloc(pointsCount * sizeof(CLLocationCoordinate2D));
points[0] = japanToSFMidpointWest;
points[1] = sanFranciscoCoord;
points[2] = newYorkCoord;
points[3] = londonCoord;
points[4] = japanCoord;
points[5] = japanToSFMidpointEast;
MKPolyline *polyline = [MKPolyline polylineWithCoordinates:points count:pointsCount];
[mapView addOverlay:polyline];
free(points);
points = NULL;

(!= ), .
SF:

CLLocationCoordinate2D japanCoord = CLLocationCoordinate2DMake(36, 138);
CLLocationCoordinate2D sanFranciscoCoord = CLLocationCoordinate2DMake(37.775, -122.4183333);

CLLocationCoordinate2D japanToSFMidpointEast;
japanToSFMidpointEast.latitude = (japanCoord.latitude + sanFranciscoCoord.latitude)/2.0;
japanToSFMidpointEast.longitude = 180;

CLLocationCoordinate2D japanToSFMidpointWest;
japanToSFMidpointWest.latitude = japanToSFMidpointEast.latitude;
japanToSFMidpointWest.longitude = -180;

int eastPointsCount = 2;
CLLocationCoordinate2D *eastPoints = malloc(eastPointsCount * sizeof(CLLocationCoordinate2D));
eastPoints[0] = japanCoord;
eastPoints[1] = japanToSFMidpointEast;
MKPolyline *eastPolyline = [MKPolyline polylineWithCoordinates:eastPoints count:eastPointsCount];
[mapView addOverlay:eastPolyline];
free(eastPoints);
eastPoints = NULL;

int westPointsCount = 2;
CLLocationCoordinate2D *westPoints = malloc(westPointsCount * sizeof(CLLocationCoordinate2D));
westPoints[0] = japanToSFMidpointWest;
westPoints[1] = sanFranciscoCoord;
MKPolyline *westPolyline = [MKPolyline polylineWithCoordinates:westPoints count:westPointsCount];
[mapView addOverlay:westPolyline];
free(westPoints);
westPoints = NULL;