Reply to thread

Actually, it's much more complicated than that. I've made a reseach and here is what I've found out:

Shape turned to Smart Object just stops being vector, period. Basicly there are two types of Smart Objects namely raster ones and vector ones. Raster Smart Objects are created in raster image editors and are stored in a PSD file as a source file and it's raster preview. On the other hand, vector Smart Objects are created in vector editors(like AI) and are stored in a PSD file as a source file and it's vector preview in EPS or PDF format.

And just because shape is ctreated in Photoshop, in essence raster image editing program, it's Smart Object preview is stored as raster image. Photoshop doesn't know HOW a Smart Object was created, it just stores it's source file and it's preview in raster or vector format.

When you edit the contents of the Smart Object Photoshop simply extracts it's source file in a temporary folder an starts the approriate program with it. Then it waits till the editor program finishes and gets back renewed source file and its new preview, raster or vector, depending on the type of the editor program.

By the way, for each instance of the Smart Object Photoshop stores only the transform parameters of it's preview(including Warp parameters for raster Smart Object).