UE Plugin
Map GPS Coordinates
With the COALA Plugin for UE you can easily convert GPS coordinates to scene coordinates.
To mark certain places on a world map for which you only have the GPS coordinates, simply read on.
Prerequisites
You need
the UE4 COALA Plugin
an image of the world map that serves as a reference
the GPS coordinates of the places you want to map
Example coordinates can be fetched easily from Google Maps.
Brief Explanation of this Solution
You practically create a "Custom POI" actor that is able to set its own position on the given GPS coordinates.
This solution is a very good basis for all kinds of other applications.
Technical Background
The COALA Plugin works with a fixed world size based on our world's circumference of 40.075 km.
For this reason, a scaling of X=2517.0 and Y=2688.0 Unreal Units is used for the reference world picture/map.
Furthermore GPS coordinates are used in the following range:
Longitude (X-value):
min -180°
max +180°
Latitude (Y-value):
min -86°
max +86°
(Latitude (Y-value) is limited to 86° because of the Gimbal Lock effect)
Since this is a very simple example, the center of the world is taken as the point of reference. In a real world application this would of course be the player's GPS position.