ggplot2 - curveGrob - annotation_custom

[milena stat]

Dear GGPLOT2 users,

I am struggling to understand a problem I encounter with use of curveGrob and annotation_custom command in ggplot.

I am building a shiny application (like in shiny_pic.png).
after choosing country 1 and country 2, R would plot a map of Europe,
highlight the two selected countries with different colors
and draw a curved arrow from country 1 in its respective color towards country2
and vice versa from country 2 to country 1 in the color of country 2.

size of the arrow would correspond with trade between the two countries.

since it is a shiny application I need a code that works fast.
map does not have to be beautiful, the speed of the application is a priority.

for the curved arrows I tried geom_curve but either the arrow was not drawn at all
or would only appear after a wait for several minutes...

I searched stackoverflow and have found a very similar problem:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20216179/plot-curved-lines-between-two-locations-in-ggplot2

and although it works very well for a couple of countries like Italy-Poland
(the only thing I had to change inside curveGrov2(arrow(ends="first"))
for the arrow head to appear at the beginning, not the end.

but the problem starts with country combinations like Austria-Cyprus or France-Greece.
It seems that x-coordinates are respected, but y-coordinates inverted
to draw an upward looking curve.

it has been a while that I am looking at this problem so perhaps I have lost a fresh eye.
is there some parameter I need to tweak in curveGrob function?

fyi: my map does not have to be plotted with ggplot2.
I am open to other solutions such as spplot etc.
as long as it works fast (shiny)
and draws the arrows as desired
with every country combination and code execution.

I would be grateful for any help and I am open to every feedback
if there is something I can improve in my code please fell free...

Milena

aka suzukiblue

require(grid)
g<-qplot(c(0,10),c(0,10))
myCurve<-curveGrob(0, 0, 1, 1, default.units = "npc",
                   curvature = 0.3, angle = 90, ncp = 20, shape = 1,
                   square = FALSE, squareShape = 1,
                   inflect = FALSE, arrow = arrow(), open = TRUE,
                   debug = FALSE,
                   name = NULL, gp = gpar(col="blue"), vp = NULL)

myCurve2<-curveGrob(0, 0, 1, 1, default.units = "npc",
                    curvature = -0.3, angle = 60, ncp = 10, shape = 1,
                    square = FALSE, squareShape = 1,
                    inflect = FALSE, arrow = arrow(), open = TRUE,
                    debug = FALSE,
                    name = NULL, gp = gpar(), vp = NULL)

g +
  annotation_custom(grob=myCurve,0,10,0,10) + # plot from 0,0 to 10,10
  annotation_custom(grob=myCurve,5,10,5,0) + # !!!!!this should draw from (5,5) to (10,0) but it does not
  annotation_custom(grob=myCurve2,2.5,6,2.5,10)   # plot from 2.5,2.5 to 6,6