public void setPartState(StoredObject so, boolean isObject) {
    if (isObject) {
      typeCode = OBJECT_CODE;
    } else if (so.getDataSize() == 0) {
      typeCode = EMPTY_BYTEARRAY_CODE;
      part = EMPTY_BYTE_ARRAY;
      return;
    } else {
      typeCode = BYTE_CODE;
    }
    if (so.hasRefCount()) {
      part = so;
    } else {
      part = so.getValueAsHeapByteArray();
    }
  }
Is the payload (<code>part</code>) a serialized object?
geode-core/src/main/java/org/apache/geode/internal/cache/tier/sockets/Part.java