Abstract The four-flux radiative transfer method describes light propagation through a light scattering media for a low computational cost by using experimentally extracted input parameters. The method can be used to aid the optimal design of the light harvesting layers in solar technologies such as the porous TiO2 films used dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The results of these light propagation simulations are sensitive to the input parameters, particularly the simulation results of systems involving mesoporous scattering centres. Here we present the four-flux parameters to simulate common mesoporous TiO2 film architectures. The parameters are highly interdependent, and there is no linear relationship between the independent scattering centres used in the films and experimentally extracted parameters. The results suggest that theoretically evaluated four flux parameters cannot be used in place of experimentally extracted parameters for four-flux simulation of DSSCs.