Metahook doesn't work at all.

[MapMappening]

I dragged and dropped my files into the appropriate directories and used the shortcut (Modified to point to my Half-Life location), and it doesn't seem to have done anything. No console commands that were associated with Meta Hook appear, so I assume it didn't innitialize.

Obviously I'm using the latest downloadable version, and am using the Steam version.

[LAGonauta]

No error showed up? Strange, I set it to annoy the user if anything bad happens. Can you describe the file tree? For example, something like that:

・Half-Life
      |
      +- valve
      |    |
      |    +- metahook
      +- cstrike
      |    |
      |    +- metahook

I need to know where metahook.exe, alure2.dll, libsndfile-1.dll, audio.dll, plugins.lst, and OpenAL.dll (optional) are located.

[MapMappening]

Half-Life
    |
    -MetaHook.exe
    -alure2.dll
    -libsndfile-1.dll
    -OpenAL.dll
    +- valve
    |    |
    |    +- metahook
    |	 |     |
    |	 |     +- configs
    |	 |     |     |
    |	 |     |     -plugins.lst
    |	 |     +- plugins
    |	 |     |     |
    |	 |     |     -Audio.dll

I have this similarly set up for Blue Shift and Opposing Force

[LAGonauta]

Your folder structure seems to be correct. Can you confirm that there is just a single line in your "plugins.lst"? (no new line character at the end)

[MapMappening]

Yes, only 1 line.
I don't recall any point where I added new files like dll's or replaced certain files, although my half-life folder is really old, so I'm going to do a fresh install just to see if that works.

[MapMappening]

Nope, still not working.
However I now notice something in the console that I thought was just something from my other mods that carried over to the fresh install

Unknown command: VModEnable

I should note that my entire file path for Half Life is F:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Half-Life, and it was different for the shortcut.

[LAGonauta]

debug_loading.zip

Can you test the attached "MetaHook.exe" and "audio.dll"?
It now uses C++ functions (instead of C) to search for plugins, a lot better than the previous code. I also added annoying messages to help debug where the plugin/module is failing to load.

[MapMappening]

About time something started to happen. Unfortunetly it still fails to innitialize, but I do get error messages.
Trying to load plugin "audio.dll" from "valve/metahook/plugins/audio.dll"
When I click OK I get this
Module name: valve/metahook/plugins/audio.dll
Then Half-Life launches as normal, this time without VModEnable stuff, so it's just a blank console.

[LAGonauta]

debug_loading.zip

It should now display what was the problem. I will probably integrate the error message in MetaHook later, a silent failure is not useful here.

[MapMappening]

We got something specific! It's the same as last time, but the last error message has this tacked on:
Error code: 193. Message: %1 is not a valid Win32 application

[LAGonauta]

I am at a loss, no idea why that is happening. Maybe you do not have the C++ runtime installed?
You can install it through Microsoft:
https://aka.ms/vs/16/release/vc_redist.x86.exe

I also statically-compiled an "audio.dll" for you, please test:
Audio.zip

[MapMappening]

Nope. I'm already on the latest version, but I re-installed anyway. I tested both my audio.dll and the one your just provided and I get the same error.
Luck isn't on my side apparently.

[LAGonauta]

Strange, it is like your system is trying to load 64-bit DLLs while MetaHook (and Half-Life) is 32-bit. I can only think the DLLs are somehow corrupted, or there are rogue DLLs in your SysWOW64 folder.

Did you trying validating all your game files through Steam? Maybe this is it?

Can you look for a "libsndfile-1.dll", "alure2.dll", "audio.dll", and "OpenAL32.dll" in your SysWOW64 and System32 (which are inside C:\Windows) folder?
It shouldn't be a thing, as those files are also in the executable folder, however who knows? You can check if it is 32-bit or 64-bit by following the selected answer here:
https://superuser.com/questions/358434/how-to-check-if-a-binary-is-32-or-64-bit-on-windows

[MapMappening]

Good news, it finally worked
I have 2 versions of OpenAl (Particularly OpenAl Soft). A 32-bit version for System32, and a 64-bit version for SysWOW64. They are the only files that are similar to Metahook's. When I removed the 64-bit version from SysWOW64 and started Metahook again, it gave me a different error.
Error code: 126. Message: The specified module could not be found
It seems that no matter what, it's trying to load the file from SysWOW64. Even if I remove the OpenAL that came with Metahook it will always load from there.
So out of curiosity I replaced the 64-bit version with the 32-bit one.
Loaded "audio.dll" succesfully

[LAGonauta]

Great, I am closing this issue now :D
I agree that the names are confusing, one should put 32-bit DLLs in SysWOW64 and 64-bit DLLs in System32 ;)