A three.js Raycaster aimed from a camera before its first render uses the camera's stale world matrix

Fact

Raycaster.setFromCamera reads camera.matrixWorld (and the projection matrix), not position and quaternion. Setting a camera's position, calling lookAt or OrbitControls.update() changes only the local transform; the world matrix is brought up to date by renderer.render (or updateMatrixWorld). A pick made before the first frame — or after the camera moved but before the next frame — casts from the old matrix: at startup, from the origin straight down -z, which misses a ground plane entirely.

Why it matters

A tap that comes right after a view opens (an automated test clicking at once, a fast user, a page whose animation frames are throttled) silently picks nothing, while the same tap a moment later works. It looks like a flaky test or a lost event, not a stale matrix.

How to apply

At the top of any picking function, bring the camera up to date first:

camera.updateMatrixWorld();
// and if the canvas may have been resized since the last frame:
camera.aspect = canvas.clientWidth / canvas.clientHeight;
camera.updateProjectionMatrix();
raycaster.setFromCamera(ndc, camera);